Actresses Nicole Kidman, Elisabeth Moss, director Jane Campion, actress Gwendoline Christie (From L to R) pose for a photocall of "Top Of The Lake: China Girl" during the 70th Cannes Film Festival in Cannes, France, on May 23, 2017. (Xinhua/Xu Jinquan)
by Grandesso Federico
CANNES, France, May 28 (Xinhua) -- New Zealand Oscar winner director Jane Campion presenting the detective TV serie "Top of the Lake -- China Girl" at the ongoing 70th Cannes Film Festival said "I do feel some changes in the years, audience has been more confident about the fun of watching female driven ideas".
"Then there was a time when if there was a female concerned story there was a sort of yawning thing and the attention was turning to football, rugby or something like that," Campion told Xinhua in an interview in Cannes.
She continued "Women issues and their lives were seen as not so interesting but now I feel that's changing, I think there is 'feminization' of story telling and story concerns, now a good example of that is the U.S. comedian, writer and director Jill Soloway."
"A good example of this phenomenon is the TV series "Big Little Lies " which is so brilliant even if it is directed by men but it is supposed to be a girls show, "Champion added.
With her iconic movie "The Piano", Champion won the Golden Lion in 1993, an Oscar for the best screenplay, an Oscar Nomination as best director and two other Golden Globes nominations. With "My Angel at My Table" she got the Grand Special Jury Prize in 1990 at the Venice Film Festival.
Asked about the fact she is still the only woman who won the golden palm, Campion stressed that "Toni Erdmann" by Maren Ade should have won the Golden Palm last year, the problem is that the number of opportunities for women to get an Oscar or a Golden Palm is limited.
Champion sees then more openness within some of those places like Amazon, they are more female run than if you compare with TV, feature film is much more a masculine owned domain if you look around and there are also many more male reviewers. That is one of the issues, all the money people practicality in film making are men while in television it is not the case.
On the "study" phase of the project Campion explained that they did some research work on the net and some interviews with people working like lawyers in the IVF ( In Vitro Fertilisation) then "we went to visit some "unusual" places under false identity because we wanted to give truth to the story", she said.
Questioned about her collaboration with Nicole Kidman, the director said " She was very courageous to chose us, I love Nicole and I think at that time she was really disappointed about some of the work she has done in features, she really wanted to do something with a director she trusted then she thought the material was interesting. With this project Nicole put her ambitions into work."
On the public reaction Champion explained that they were truly encouraged by the audience and by the critical response they got, "it is good because you feel you connected with people and you have done it doing what you want to telling the stories the way you want to do it," she said.
On her inspiration sources, the female director said "I have been inspired by people who liked their work, David Lynch is certainly one of them, then I have been inspired by so many filmmakers and I feel have copied David my all life."
Asked about the differences between cinema and TV, the Oscar winner said "I think everybody wants to show whatever is good, when the television is good and fearless it will be successful while if it will become conservative and bind it will be the end of it."
"If the TV series are good and fearless, you are able to do something that you can't do in cinema and then it becomes something unique; don't forget then that there are much more money on TV and this is a crucial element to know," she added.
