Jane Campion: Filmmaker and Philosopher

Throughout films and television series like The Piano, Bright Star, In the Cut and Top of the Lake, Jane Campion has constantly explored gender, subjectivity and narrative representation. In an intensive engagement with her cross-medium career, Bernadette Wegenstein examines how Campion gives a tangible and visible form to the female gaze in her exploration, deployment, and ultimately her subversion of highly formalized genres such as the period piece, the thriller, and the procedural drama.

Keeping a strict focus on her directorial practice and specifically on the capacity of her cinematography to induce both empathy and estrangement, this vital new book shows how Campion is engaged in a permanent artistic and intuitive exposition of a profoundly feminist philosophical vision. Wegenstein’s work will be invaluable to scholars and students in gender and women’s studies, film studies and those on philosophy and film courses.

Bernadette Wegenstein is Professor of Media Studies and Director of the Center for Advanced Media Studies at Johns Hopkins University, USA. She has written books on media theory including Getting Under the Skin: Body and Media Theory, The Cosmetic Gaze: Body Modification and The Construction of Beauty. She is also a documentary filmmaker.