Jane Campion's heroines are original, independent and uncompromising – a bit like Jane Campion herself.  'If Jane hadn't done anything, I think she may have become a great criminal,' her mother remarked in an early  interview 

 

 

 

Instead, Campion became one of the most acclaimed film directors in the world.  New Zealand-born Campion - the first woman in history to win a Palme d'Or - took five years off to spend time with her young daughter before resurfacing with her latest film, Bright Star, and a renewed call for more women Hollywood.

She says it is still a battle for women to make it in the film industry and she would love to see more women directors. 'I think without them writing and being directors the rest of us are never going to know the whole story,' she said at Cannes. 'You have to develop a tough skin and it’s my suspicion that women aren’t used to that. They must put on their coats of armour and get on with it, because we need them.'

There are not a lot of films where the heroes are women and Campion has always been aware of her position as a woman filmmaker. ‘There is a different kind of vulnerability when a woman is directing,’ she told a German film journal, pointing out that she knows things about women that men cannot express. She is famously generous towards female collaborators and competitors. 'Do the math! It’s not possible to be a woman without caring about other women,' she told journalists in Cannes.

Campion has only made four feature films since winning the Palme d’Or for The Piano in 1993, which also won her three Oscars. 'The real reason is that I have a daughter and I was beginning to wonder if she knew she had a mother,' Campion said. 'I was determined to have some time with her while she was young.

'It was a great thing for me. I felt midway in life I didn't want to turn into a cliché of myself. I needed to notice what it is I'm interested in without any pressure to produce.'

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