Directed by Jane Campion • 1986 • Australia
Starring Kris Bidenko, Emma Coles, Kris McQuade
This ambitious TV movie by Jane Campion was heralded at the 1986 Cannes Film Festival as the arrival of a major new filmmaking voice. TWO FRIENDS’s screenplay, by renowned Australian novelist Helen Garner, is articulate, assured, and enthralling. The film begins in the present, when teenage friends Louise and Kelly, once inseparable, have already grown apart. Louise is in high school, gets good grades, and has a typical love-hate relationship with her divorced mother. Kelly, in bleached hair and punk gear, lives with friends at the beach and is experimenting with drugs and casual relationships. Campion then takes the film backward in time over the past year in the girls’ friendship. In five episodes, the film reveals the subtle changes that sent the two on their different paths. With the humor, fierce honesty, and passionate sense of humanity that are the hallmarks of Campion’s best work, she tells a story of missed opportunities and minor traumas that take on profound new meanings with the passage of time.
Up Next in Directed by Jane Campion
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Sweetie
Directed by Jane Campion • 1989 • New Zealand
Starring Genevieve Lemon, Karen Colston, Tom LycosThough she went on to create a string of brilliant films, Jane Campion will always be remembered for her stunning debut feature SWEETIE, which focuses on the hazardous relationship between the button...
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An Angel at My Table
Directed by Jane Campion • 1990 • New Zealand
Starring Kerry Fox, Alexia Keogh, Karen FergussonWith AN ANGEL AT MY TABLE, Academy Award–winning filmmaker Jane Campion brought to the screen the harrowing autobiography of Janet Frame, New Zealand’s most distinguished author. Three actors in turn ...
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Jane Campion in Her Own Words
In this interview from 1989, director Jane Campion talks about where she finds her inspiration and the importance of remaining open to new generations of filmmakers.
