Jane Campion is one of the most celebrated auteurs of modern cinema and was the first female director to be awarded the prestigious Palme d'Or. Throughout her relatively short career, Campion has received extraordinary attention from the media and scholars alike and has provoked fierce debates on issues such as feminism, colonialism, and nationalism.

In this detailed account of Jane Campion's career as a filmmaker, Deb Verhoeven examines specifically how contemporary film directors 'fashion' themselves as auteurs ? through their personal interactions with the media, in their choice of projects, in their emphasis on particular filmmaking techniques and finally in the promotion of their films.

Through analysis of key approaches to Campion's films, such as The Piano; In the Cut; Sweetie; An Angel at My Table; and Holy Smoke Deb Verhoeven introduces students to the passionate debates surrounding this controversial and often experimental director

Featuring a career overview, a filmography, scene by scene analysis and an extended interview with Campion on her approach to creativity, this is a great introduction to one of the most important directors of contemporary cinema.

Jane Campion is one of the most celebrated auteurs of modern cinema and was the first female director to be awarded the prestigious Palme d'Or. Throughout her relatively short career, Campion has received extraordinary attention from the media and scholars alike and has provoked fierce debates on issues such as feminism, colonialism, and nationalism. In this detailed account of Jane Campion's career as a filmmaker, Deb Verhoeven examines specifically how contemporary film directors 'fashion' themselves as auteurs - through their personal interactions with the media, in their choice of projects, in their emphasis on particular filmmaking techniques and finally in the promotion of their films. Through analysis of key approaches to Campion's films, such as The Piano; In the Cut; Sweetie; An Angel at My Table; and Holy Smoke Deb Verhoeven introduces students to the passionate debates surrounding this controversial and often experimental director Featuring a career overview, a filmography, scene by scene analysis and an extended interview with Campion on her approach to creativity, this is a great introduction to one of the most important directors of contemporary cinema.

In this highly readable study of Australian cinema, Deb Verhoeven explores the relationship between a series of films produced in different periods of Australian history that are linked by a common thread - the repeated image of sheep. Verhoeven focuses on two key 'sheep films': ""The Squatter's Daughter"" (Hall, 1933) and ""Bitter Springs"" (Smart, 1950). Both movies are concerned with the national project, in which sheep growing and nation building are seamlessly aligned. But Verhoeven artfully demonstrates that it is precisely in their emphasis on textual re-iteration and repetition that the sheep films critique an otherwise ostensibly 'national' vision. In the process, Verhoeven sheds new light on the importance and implication of discourses of originality in the Australian cinema.