Jane Campion on ‘Barbie’ Changing Hollywood for Women Filmmakers

Jane Campion will receive the Pardo d’Onore Manor Award for lifetime achievement at the 77th edition of the Locarno Film Festival on Friday evening. But the New Zealand director also took time to talk to members of the press about a broad range of topics, including the success of Greta Gerwig‘s Barbie, the history of male dominance in Hollywood and her “very troubled” relationship with her own movies.

The New Zealand filmmaker called Gerwig “doing the Barbie story … fantastic. Because for once, we’ve got a film that is not Marvel hero characters, but a sort of humorous and very creative and funny take on the Barbie mental story.”

Added Campion: “She’s the first woman that has really made the historical bundle out of it, she got into the billions. It’s fantastic. It just means that women [will] be trusted with money, finally.”

Asked why some of her films, such as In the Cut, The Portrait of a Lady and Holy Smoke, didn’t get celebrated when they came out the same way they may get celebrated today, Campion said: “I really don’t know why exactly, but I can guess. The industry was very male-dominated, and still is quite male-dominated. But thank God that Berlin Wall of gender dominance is down now, and I feel things have really gotten a much better chance.”

She added: “We’ve seen so many great women come forward recently, winning lots of great awards, like Chloe Zhao and Justine Triet, and many, many more. So I’m very hopeful.”

About Portrait of a Lady, Campion said: “People didn’t see Nicole Kidman at that time as the actress she really is, and we know from Australia she can be, because they were familiar with seeing her as Tom Cruise’s girlfriend or wife, and feeling that it was a kind of hand-back role and that she shouldn’t be playing such a classical heroine, especially American. But from my point of view, she was brilliant.”

Campion was also asked about her relationship with her filmography, describing it as “very troubled.” She pointed out that “the period of intensity in trying to bring them to their fruition… is so intense,” adding: “And it’s quite critical, the way I look at [them]. … I’m just scared to look at it and think, ‘Oh my God, I missed this,’ and I can’t handle it.”

Concluded the filmmaker: “Yeah, I can be quite tough on myself. It feels like I’m a sort of mother animal, and I’m like, ‘Okay, you can fly. Get out! Don’t let me see you again.’ But the period while I’m nursing them towards their best version of themselves is full of love and intensity. Maybe it’s like when you have an intense relationship with someone and it’s over, and you don’t really want to see them again.”