In The Scene: Jane Campion

By Ellen Cheshire

Listen to an interview about the book here:

About the book

Jane Campion is one of the few women film-makers working today who has managed to create a unique body of work. A true independent film-maker, yet she has attracted A List Hollywood superstars to appear in her films.

Who else but Jane Campion could have convinced a tattooed Harvey Keitel to run buck-naked through the New Zealand landscape in The Piano, or for the multi-award winning Kate Winslet to pee down her legs in the middle of the desert in Holy Smoke?

Campion is an outspoken champion in recent debates about the lack of women in senior creative positions within the film industry.

The first in our new series of introductory guides to contemporary filmmakers, In The Scene: Jane Campion is a must for film fans and students, particularly those interested in women and film, and the Oscar winner herself: one of only 4 women nominated for a Best Director Oscar.

It covers all Campion’s films from her early shorts to the recent TV series Top of the Lake: China Girl (2017).

This book will cover Jane Campion’s remarkable career from her Palme D’or winning debut short film Peel to her recent return to television with the Top of the Lake, reflecting on the influence of her study in anthropology as well as her formative years growing up in New Zealand.

Review for this book

“Ellen Cheshire’s rich and thoughtful study accessibly and incisively gets us to the heart of why Jane Campion’s films connect with viewers around the world. This book is hugely enjoyable and insightful.” James Clarke, Writer, Movie Movements: Films That Changed the World of Cinema.

Reviews for Ellen’s other books

Re: The James Bond Archives (3 chapters), published by Taschen: “The chapter [written by Ellen Cheshire] on Licence to Kill (and in fact the whole saga of Timothy Dalton) makes for fascinating reading. Telling how Dalton’s take on Bond helped to resurrect the character from parody only to fall foul of an undetermined production process and a rapid rethinking of the tone and violence inherent in the stories he led, there is a philosophical touch to the views made in hindsight.” – Jon Lyus, heyuguys.co.uk

Re: The Charlie Chaplin Archives (3 chapters) published by Taschen: “There are many riches to explore and re-explore, and this treasure of a book is the perfect companion.”  – Trevor Berrett, The Mookse and the Gripe

About the author

Ellen Cheshire has a BA (Hons) in Film and English and a MA in Gothic Studies and has taught Film at Undergraduate and A Level.
She has published books on Bio-Pics, Audrey Hepburn and The Coen Brothers and contributed chapters to books on James Bond, Charlie Chaplin, Global Film-making, Film Form, Fantasy Films and War Movies.

For Supernova Books, she has also written In the Scene: Ang Lee, and contributed to Silent Women; pioneers of Cinemaeds. Melody Bridges and Cheryl Robson (voted best book on Silent Film 2016) and Counterculture UK; a celebration eds. Rebecca Gillieron and Cheryl Robson.