Jane Campion names five key movies that shaped her career
While her feature debut, Sweetie, premiered in 1989, Jane Campion would garner widespread acclaim a few years later with The Piano. This historical romantic drama positioned Campion as the second woman in Oscar history to earn a ‘Best Director’ nomination, subsequently losing out to Steven Spielberg’s epic Schindler’s List. However, Campion eventually secured the award in 2021 for the Benedict Cumberbatch-led The Power of the Dog.
The director has flourished in a successful career primarily focused on creating period pieces, such as a biopic on John Keats titled Bright Star and an adaptation of Henry James’ novel The Portrait of a Lady. Campion has shattered numerous barriers in the male-dominated film industry, notably becoming the first woman to secure the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival.
In pursuit of excellence, Campion has sought inspiration from various filmmakers, drawing from the works of Jean-Luc Godard and Akira Kurosawa alongside contemporaries like John Huston and Jonathan Glazer. Throughout her career, Campion has openly shared her admiration for certain films that have deeply influenced and inspired her creative journey.
John Huston’s The Treasure of the Sierra Madre holds a firm place among her favourites. In Campion’s eyes, Huston is “a brilliant storyteller”. She states that his act reminds her of the power of causation and that the involvement of Huston’s father in the film adds a central focal point to the narrative. “The lead characters are all sensing betrayal and plotting to undo each other,” she explained. “There is also a moment when Huston’s story loses its subtlety, such as when Humphrey Bogart’s character too suddenly becomes suspicious, and you realise the importance of not doing that, of making sure each plot point is well manoeuvred.”
Campion also calls Terrence Malick’s Badlands, starring Martin Sheen and Sissy Spacek, “a perfect film”. “Terrence Malick understands the poetry in every character and particularly in this fated teen murderer and his newly met runaway girlfriend,” she explains. “The Martin Sheen character does terrible things, but he is also in love and not long for this world. Sissy Spacek is beautiful and unique in a way we rarely see in films.”
Elsewhere, Campion also discusses Malick’s Days of Heaven, which makes her list for its “beautiful and elegiac” atmosphere. The endearing aesthetic Malick masters in the film influenced Campion’s style, which persists even when it’s not immediately obvious. “It is a long way from the atmosphere of The Power of the Dog,” she states, “But very close in period and the importance of nature. It helped me think about my film and the right choices for my story.”
Another director who is an excellent source of inspiration for Campion is Paul Thomas Anderson. The Master, in particular, became one of her favourite films due to its intriguing texture and expert narratives: “I simply appreciate everything in his films,” she says, “And, in particular, the texture of his world, the feeling of reality, and the photography of his characters that is qualitatively different, somehow more tender and curious than everyone else’s.”
Movies that inspired Jane Campion:
- Badlands (Terrence Malick, 1973)
- Days of Heaven (Malick, 1978)
- Birth (Jonathan Glazer, 2004)
- The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (John Huston, 1948)
- The Master (Paul Thomas Anderson, 2012)
