Jane Campion Talks Her Career and ‘Top Of The Lake: China Girl’

Jane Campion has helped to pave the way for women in her field since the early 1980s. As much as it would be nice to overlook Campion’s gender, the industry appeared both unable and unwilling to do so in the past. Since its inception in 1929, only 4 women have been nominated for an Academy Award for Best Director, Jane being the second. Campion appeared at the Film Society of Lincoln Center last week to chronicle her astonishing career, discuss her love of David Lynch and what it really means to be a filmmaker.

In ‘Top of the Lake: China Girl,’ Jane Campion does what she does best. With the wonderful Elizabeth Moss in the title role and an appearance by the director’s own daughter Alice Englert as a pivotal character, the series highlights Campion’s aptness for great storytelling with a side of humor thrown in, even in its darkest moments. “Yeah, you gotta laugh,” she says with a smile. There is a frankness and intimacy to her work that coexist in such a way that isn’t commonly seen in films or television series today or ever. Campion’s style is all her own: unique, palpable, sustainable and captivating.

READ MORE: Essentials: The Films Of Jane Campion

Jane has often tackled the complexities of life in all her films from mother/daughter relationships, to sexual assault and misogyny. “Top of The Lake” is a piece about some of those same themes, with a crime story thrown in at its center. When asked about the crime story element Jane replied, “I do like crime stories. I guess it appeals to that part of me that wants to know what the truth is.” This desire for truth is the driving factor in much of Jane’s work, an element that strongly resonates with the audience. Feminism acts as a strong undercurrent in all Campion does, reinforcing her place in feminist history particularly within the film making industry. Campion single-handedly works to combat misogyny with her work by representing real women through a woman’s eyes. “I love depicting it on film,” she says, “I have a big alpha male in me, you know” she continued with a laugh.

SEE ALSO: Campion’s Feminist History, From ‘Sweetie’ To ‘Top Of The Lake’

Jane Campion’s career is a catalog of firsts, “An Angel at my Table” was the first film from New Zealand to compete at the Toronto and Venice Film Festivals. She is the first, and still is the only woman, to win the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival for her work on “The Piano” in 1993. That win being her second, since she won it for her short film “An Exercise in Discipline: Peel” in 1986. “They [Cannes] has been kind to me,” she says, likely referencing her wins as well as her nominations for films like “Sweetie” in 1989 and “Bright Star” ten years later.

After playing a clip from “Sweetie” for the audience the interviewer asked how it all began for her.  “I came to film making through art school,” mirroring the same way David Lynch came to film, “I started to become obsessed with film making.” In art school however, Jane recalls she went because she loved to draw and paint but ultimately realized she “wasn’t any good at it.” Ideally Campion wanted to skip film school altogether, secure her own funding and make the films she wanted to but sadly that didn’t work out. “I have lots of funny stories, but bad,” she paused, as if recalling a specific memory, “…really bad” she said with a chuckle. Eventually Jane was accepted into film school and spoke about the differences between those days and today. “It’s unbelievable the change in time.  They basically paid you to attend school,” the crowd gasped, “in those days they even paid for your films!”

Both Jane’s parents were ‘theater people,’ Jane’s mother is an actress who appeared in “An Angel At My Table,” so it’s fair to say Jane’s draw to the industry is inherent considering her daughter is also an actor. “Film making to me was just the best fun ever.  I had no idea if I was doing it well or not,” she says of her first films, “the beauty of my first film is that I didn’t even know what a wide shot was!” The joy for her was the simplicity of just capturing images on film; she reminisced that she mostly employed friends and family in her work early on, saying, “I know how I am and actors scared the crap out of me.” She went on to say that many actors taught her a lot about acting and the process, mentioning Harvey Keitel, Holly Hunter, Nicole Kidman and others as being very influential.

“I used to carry around a projector with me,” Jane said with a laugh, “just in case anyone wanted to see the film I made.” After showing her first film to someone hailed as a “graduate of London Film School,” they remarked that the film didn’t have enough wide shots. “I thought to myself, what the hell is he talking about, ‘wide shot’?” Jane continued, “I had no idea there were different lenses. In those days, if the picture was in the frame and the light was reading we would cheer!”

The sheer number of choices were overwhelming and the start of Campion’s agony when first starting out. “You literally have to think of everything that could be done then from there chose what’s best. Before it was like ‘its on the screen! We are done!!’” She said as she laughed loudly, the audience with her. Just being in the room you can see that the crowd was spellbound by her stories and her presence, her honesty and candor when it came to her career and life was enchanting.

When asked what film makers are most important to her, Campion enthusiastically mentioned David Lynch, Jim Jarmusch and Bernardo Bertolucci as most influential. “I am very openhearted when it comes to filmmakers. From the moment I started watching films I felt like it was the greatest thing ever.” The thing that resonated most for Campion was that these filmmakers were “telling stories that were really interesting about simply being human.”