News Analysis India

Tag: Jane Campion

  • Actor Sam Elliott apologizes for ‘Power Of The Dog’ comments

    By PTI

    LOS ANGELES: Veteran actor Sam Elliott has apologised for the comments he made about “The Power of the Dog” and filmmaker Jane Campion, who won the best director Oscar for the Western drama.

    In an interview with Marc Maron’s WTF podcast last month, Elliott had dismissed the Benedict Cumberbatch-starrer and made, what many deemed, derogatory comments against the film’s theme and its director.

    “I told the WTF podcaster that I thought Jane Campion was a brilliant director, and I want to apologize to the cast of The Power of the Dog, brilliant actors all,” Elliott said.

    “And in particular Benedict Cumberbatch. I can only say that I’m sorry and I am. I am,” the actor said while speaking during Deadline’s Contenders TV event Sunday to promote 1883 on Paramount+.

    Elliott, who joked that he shouldn’t have done a podcast with the call letters WTF, said he was not articulate about his comments.

    “I wasn’t very articulate about it. I didn’t articulate it very well,” Elliott, 77, said.

    “And I said some things that hurt people and I feel terrible about that. The gay community has been incredible to me my entire career. And I mean my entire career, from before I got started in this town. Friends on every level and every job description up until today. I’m sorry I hurt any of those friends and someone that I loved. And anyone else by the words that I used.”

    In his March 1 comments to WTF, Elliott, who has done a string of Westerns in his career including “Tombstone”, “The Shadow Riders” and “The Desperate Trail”, had called “The Power of the Dog” a “piece of s**t” Western with “allusions of homosexuality”.

    On New Zealand-born Campion, Elliott said, “What the f*** does this woman from down there know about the American West?” Campion had later slammed Elliott’s comments.

    “I think it’s really unfortunate and sad for him because he’s really hit the trifecta of misogyny and xenophobia and homophobia,” she had said last month.

    Westerns are a genre of movies that are usually set in the American West between the late eighteenth century and late nineteenth century and revolve around cowboys, riders and other outlaws.

  • Oscars 2022: Jane Campion wins directing Oscar for ‘Power of the Dog’

    By Associated Press

    LOS ANGELES: Jane Campion’s sabbatical from moviemaking left the respect and admiration of her peers undiminished.

    Campion, whose last feature film was 2009’s “Bright Star,” was honored as best director at Sunday’s Academy Awards for the unconventional Western “The Power of the Dog.”

    The 67-year-old filmmaker’s victory marks the first time the directing award has gone to women in back-to-back years, with Chloé Zhao winning last year for “Nomadland.” Campion is the third woman to win in the category.

    “Big love to my fellow nominees….You’re all so extraordinary, and it could have been any of you,” the New Zealand native said, calling the award a “lifetime honor.”

    “I love directing because it’s a deep dive into story, yet the task of manifesting a world can be overwhelming. The sweet thing is I’m not alone,” Campion said, thanking the film’s stars, its producers and Netflix.

    “The Power of the Dog,” starring Benedict Cumberbatch, Kirsten Dunst, Jesse Plemons and Kodi Smit-McPhee, is based on Thomas Savage’s 1967 novel about wealthy rancher brothers and is set in Montana in 1925. All received acting bids.

    Campion, the first woman to be nominated twice for directing, triumphed over a field that included Steven Spielberg for the remake of “West Side Story.” When Campion received her first directing nod, in 1994 for “The Piano,” Spielberg won the trophy for “Schindler’s List.”

    Her 1994 nomination made her only the second woman to compete in the category, following Lina Wertmuller’s groundbreaking bid in 1977 for “Seven Beauties.” Campion won the Oscar for best original screenplay for “The Piano,” with Holly Hunter and Anna Paquin receiving acting trophies. Campion’s victory Sunday makes her the first woman to win both directing and writing awards.

    Since the awards began in 1927, a total of seven women have competed in the best director category. Kathryn Bigelow was the first to win, for “The Hurt Locker” in 2009, with Zhao’s victory coming more than a decade later.

    Campion wasn’t idle during her break from filmmaking. She co-created the TV series “Top of the Lake,” which in 2013 received eight Emmy nominations and one award for its first season. Campion shared writing and directing nods.

    She was drawn back to film by Savage’s novel, which she called an “amazing piece of literature,” and the realization that, while she enjoyed making the TV series, she was ready to again embrace the framework of moviemaking.

    “The discipline and the rigor of those two hours was something I was excited to go back to,” Campion told the AP last year.

    Others nominated in the directing category this year were Paul Thomas Anderson for “Licorice Pizza,” Kenneth Branagh, “Belfast,” and Ryûsuke Hamaguchi, “Drive My Car.”