This week, we were asked to use the theory of auteur/author in application toward one particular film or director, much like we saw in the readings toward Marleen Gorris. Auteur theory asserts that there is a useful relationship between literary theory and film theory, and that within the medium of film, there are multiple ways, or “representational effects” that allow a director to explicitly insert their voice as creator. “Although social contexts shape film processes, it was the director who authored a film”. Our readings argue that auteur theory is particularly useful for looking at female centered or created film, because the explicit naming and acknowledgment of a voice that is female concurrently affirms the fact that women have a unique voice, a unique truth to tell. “Feminist literary critics have already made a firm decision that gender shapes signature and that there is an aesthetic difference in the way in which gendered signatures write”. Extending literary theory to film and watching for the “voice” of the creator gives both students of film and students of feminist history a useful tool for critical expression.

I choose to focus on Jane Campion for my own exploration of auteur theory, and of course I apologize in advance if some of you are rolling your eyes at the “obviousness” of my choice. Campion is known for her literary adaptations, so some may believe that she is particularly well placed to simply transfer those author tendencies using a visual vocabulary. However, Campion is not an auteur simply because of her subject matter; rather, she can be read that way by her overwhelming sense of ownership and responsibility, for the fact that she seems to take on the title herself. In an interview with a Australian journalist, she claims that she went to film school to make something of her life and “confront her potential”. She says: “What you are really worried about is that there's not much there. But the moment you begin, [potential] is not a fixed thing. It expands with...a bit of technique, a bit of learning, a bit of effort.” Campion was the first woman to win the prestigious Palme d'Or for The Piano in 1993, and the film also was a rare critical and commercial success. She is also well known for her adaptation of Henry James' The Portrait of a Lady, which in itself could more than prove her auteur status with its liberal treatment of the text, and her latest film is a dramatization of the romance between poet John Keats and Fanny Brawne. Her style is quiet, with lots of landscape shots and muted colors, and her preferred themes are usually madness, desire, and the oppressive environment of the home, which many could argue are uniquely suitable to gendered perspective. In one of my favorite movies by her, An Angel at My Table, poetess Janet Frame is considered crazy because of a crippling shyness that makes her mute; when she is drawn out of herself by an affair with a visiting professor, she gets closer to her artistic liberation at the cost of a betrayed heart and a rough miscarriage. It's not an explicitly feminist message to start, and I'm sure the masochism of many of Campion's characters may seem problematic, but for me, the abolishment of romantic fantasy as a path toward self knowledge is a positive if endlessly depressing message.

To get a sample of Campion, you could look at several short films she has made over the years. I'm choosing “The Water Diary” for this class because it is short, timely, and has a message that is female-centered. The story concerns a small Australian town that has not had rain for many weeks. Horses are slaughtered; farms are lost. The children of the town, namely two young cousins, go through a range of emotional responses, from hope to despair to blaming adults for the irresponsible practices that have led to climate change. Finally, they decide to ritualize their sadness and need, and stage a violin performance by the town's most talented young lady, filling jars with water and tears and drinking from it communally in order to “will” the rain. “I think that's putting too much of a burden on a young girl”, one woman responds, and I think that is Campion's authorship, her perspective coming through. The power to combat negative forces by out-creating them instead of fighting, the idea of making clouds weep in response to beauty instead of forcing them to submit or calculating them---both of these ideas are enriched by the female voice and provide a clear example of perspective.

See The Water Diary here: 1. www.youtube.com/watch?v=G7Kk_mkUUN8