Holy Smoke
The Australian outback sets the scene for a hallucinatory battle of wills between Kate Winslet and Harvey Keitel, in Campion’s stimulating, offbeat blend of spirituality and sexuality.
Returning to the darkly comic territory of Sweetie but moving the sibling dynamic offscreen (Campion co-wrote the script with her sister Anna Campion), Holy Smoke stars Keitel as a deprogrammer sent to Australia by the parents of Ruth (Winslet, sporting a pitch-perfect Aussie accent), alarmed that their daughter has embraced a guru’s teachings a little too devoutly on her recent trip to India. A battle of the sexes ensues in this wild and surreal film, which Campion says was inspired by her interest in “the question of how you have a spiritual life in the ’90s and in the connections of spirituality, eroticism, and love.” Screening in 35mm. Films showing at this event:
Passionless Moments
Winner of the AFI Award for Best Experimental Film, Campion’s collection of awkwardly familiar and embarrassing vignettes, co-written and directed with Gerard Lee (Top of the Lake), went on to wow Cannes audiences. SFF 1985.
Tickets
Sat 17 Jun
10:15am
Art Gallery of New South Wales
- Program Strand
- Jane Campion Retrospective
- Year
- 1999
- Classification
- MA15+
- Country
- Australia, USA
- Language
- In English
- Director
- Jane Campion
- Producer
- Jan Chapman
- Cast
- Kate Winslet, Harvey Keitel, Pam Grier
- Screenwriter
- Jane Campion, Anna Campion
- Cinematographer
- Dion Beebe
- Editor
- Veronika Jenet
- Genre
- Women Directors, Australian Films, Retrospective, Indian subcontinent
- Company Credits
- Rights Holder: Park Circus. Print Source: National Film and Sound Archive
