A Choice Outstanding Academic Book of 2011

How personal experience is woven into a filmmaker's art

Alistair Fox explores the dynamics of the creative process involved in cinematic representation in the films of Jane Campion, one of the most highly regarded of contemporary filmmakers. Utilizing a wealth of new material—including interviews with Campion and her sister and personal writings of her mother—Fox traces the connections between the filmmaker's complex background and the thematic preoccupations of her films, from her earliest short, Peel, to 2009's Bright Star. He establishes how Campion's deep investment in family relationships informs her aesthetic strategies, revealed in everything from the handling of shots and lighting, to the complex system of symbolic images repeated from one film to the next.

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In his book, Alistair Fox finds and illuminates the relations between diegetic worlds and the life of a "New Zealand Australian", Jane Campion.

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This is easily the best, most comprehensive book now available on Campion and her work. . . . Highly recommended.September 2011