![]() “He is going to be important.” Turning Kay’s cup this way and that, she goes on: “What’s that? A question mark?” A minute later, frowning: “Oh yes, it’s on his face. In one of the first scenes, Kay visits a tealeaf reader. It’s about Kay (Karen Colston), Sweetie’s sister, a quietly bold and superstitious woman whom we get to know well before Sweetie herself makes her first appearance, 26 minutes into the film. Sweetie isn’t about Sweetie (Genevieve Lemon)-at least not centrally. Nor had I seen In the Cut (2003), Campion’s adaptation of Susannah Moore’s novel about an English professor caught up in a murder case nor An Angel at My Table (1990), her long and winning portrait of the life of celebrated New Zealand writer Janet Frame, based on Frame’s autobiography nor Sweetie (1989), Campion’s bizarrely hilarious and beautiful debut.įirst things first. I had already seen The Piano (1993), Campion’s best-known film, but not Bright Star (2009), her take on the ill-fated romance between John Keats and Fanny Brawne. Always a sucker for killer establishing shots (see Days of Heaven or No Country for Old Men), within minutes I was hooked.Īnd chancing upon a director’s latest work is the only excuse I need to go and watch her first, making (selective) pit stops throughout her career along the way. One night I sat down on my couch and began streaming the first episode. Game of Thrones! Who had time for a detective mini-series set in small-town New Zealand? My students hadn’t even heard of it.īut at some point I found out that 2013’s Top of the Lake was created and directed by Jane Campion. And by handily borrowing someone else’s HBO GO password, I had recently opened up a veritable Pandora’s Box Office: True Detective, Six Feet Under, Game of Thrones. But Netflix’s archives are so deep-I was still catching up on my Parks and Rec, my Louie, my Portlandia. So why had I put off watching the show in the first place? Multiple trustworthy parties had recommended it to me. ![]() Sometimes, when your girlfriend is out of town and you’ve just started watching an awesome TV show, you’ll try to force it on just about anybody you can. Sometimes, when you’re a teacher, you’ll say just about anything to break the silence your students seem bent on preserving. “Has anyone here watched Top of the Lake?” Nguyen.This is the third in a short series of posts on directors’ first films-films often overshadowed by the blockbusters that come after them but that catch their makers at an important stage of evolution while providing plenty delights of their own. This season of Modern Cinema is generously supported by James C. McEvoy and the Susan Wildberg Morgenstein Fund. Modern Cinema’s Founding Supporters are Carla Emil and Rich Silverstein. Source: Criterion Collection/Women Make Moviesįilms and schedules may be subject to change. Producer: Australian Film Television and Radio School Campion offsets what could have been a morose drama with an atmosphere that becomes increasingly, and unnervingly, mystical.” “The world of Sweetie - a beautifully strange and compelling film debut - is bent out of shape with almost intangibly subtle precision. ![]() A feast of colorful photography and captivating, idiosyncratic characters, the tough and tender Sweetie heralded the emergence of this gifted director, as well as a renaissance of Australian cinema, which would take the film world by storm in the ’90s.” “Though she went on to create a string of brilliant films, Jane Campion will always be remembered for her stunning debut feature, Sweetie, which focuses on the hazardous relationship between the buttoned-down, superstitious Kay and her rampaging, devil-may-care sister, Sweetie - and on their family’s profoundly rotten roots. ![]() Selected by Christine Vachon screens with A Girl’s Own Story (27 mins)
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |