Cannes Is a Mythical and Exciting Place, Says Campion

Head of this year’s Cannes jury, Wellington-born director Jane Campion made her name portraying complex, strong-willed female protagonists and knows from first-hand experience that the festival is a place where careers are made.

Campion, the only woman ever to win the top Palme d’Or Prize with The Piano, was a little known arthouse filmmaker when she brought her movie to the French Riviera in 1993.

After being named as head of the jury earlier this year, Campion, 60, described the festival as a “mythical and exciting” place where “amazing things can happen”.

At Cannes, she said, “actors are discovered, films are financed, careers are made”.

“I know this because that is what happened to me,” she added.

Announcing her as the head of the 2014 jury, Cannes festival organisers called Campion a “major film-maker and indefatigable pioneer”.

In the just published French book Jane Campion by Jane Campion, film historian Michel Ciment said each of Campion’s films had “as its centre a protagonist who fights for her … autonomy”.

The 2014 Cannes Film Festival is currently on from 14-25 May.

Original article by AFP, Bangkok Post, May 10, 2014.