Jane Campion Film Festival Brochure

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Introduction Winter Solstice Festival Information Ticket Information Schedule Lecture Series Location Map About the Director Jane Campion’s Story Campion Filmography Featured Films The Piano Portrait of a Lady Sweetie Bright Star Interviews Jane Campion Ben Whisham

INTRODUCTION

WINTER REBIRTH Winter solstice occurs on the shortest day and longest night of the year, when the sun’s elevation in the sky is the lowest. Since the winter solstice lasts only a moment in time, other terms are often used for the day on which it occurs, such as midwinter, the longest night or the first day of winter.

Solstice can be a magical, contemplative time, a night of spiritual reconnection and ritual. While solstice may not have gained the notoriety of Christmas, Hannukkah, or Kwanza, many people celebrate it as a deeply meaningful holiday, to celebrate renewal, rebirth, and gratitude.

Since the event is seen as the reversal of the Sun’s ebbing presence in the sky, concepts of the birth or rebirth of sun gods have been common and the year as reborn has been celebrated with regard to life-death-rebirth.

CELEBRATING SOLSTICE

The winter solstice has carried strong symbolism for many, many years. Some refer to solstice as the rebirth of the sun—and not coincidentally Christmas celebrates the birth of the Son. Ancient cultures feared the light of the sun would not return unless they performed vigils and rituals on the solstice.

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There is no right or wrong way to celebrate winter solstice. Symbolically, the solstice is a time of turning inward, into the depths of the unknown. It’s a time of tuning into a deep sense of intuition—trusting your inner voice, and feeling your way in the dark when you cannot see where you are going.

Many people like to use the solstice as a time of deep meditation—to reflect on what has been and what will be. It is better to light a candle than curse the darkness. On the eve

IT IS BETTER TO LIGHT A CANDLE THAN CURSE THE DARKNESS.

of the Solstice, many people choose to hold a ritual for letting go. Some people celebrate solstice by chasing away the darkness.

Gather around a large outdoor bonfire and celebrate the return of light. Write down anything you may want to let go of and toss it into the fire. Bask in the warm glow of the fire as you welcome a new beginning.

FESTIVAL FOR FREEDOM This evening becomes the perfect occasion to celebrate these women; characters who were victims of their own silence and circumstance. Women who have the ability to escape but not the strength of character. On the even when it’s purported to give the most strength to womenkind, we gather collective female strength and wish them the best, and hope in another live they make it.

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FESTIVAL INFORMATION

PRICING $40 One Day All Access Pass $100 Early Bird Three Day Pass $120 Three Day Movie Pass $150 Three Day All Access Pass Tickets include access to our daily film screenings, in addition to entrance to the Therapy Garden, where daily meditation sessions will be offered on the hour.

PURCHASING You can purchase your tickets by visiting the festival website: www.tempestwithin.com Or by calling our box office M-F 9am-6pm Local New Zealand :42 472 1626 US Toll Free: 800 246 2645

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DATE DEC 20

MOVIE SCREENINGS 12PM-2PM The Piano A tragic tale of how a woman’s silence leads to simultaneous loss, love and a better understanding of herself.

DEC 21

10AM-12PM Portrait of a Lady An exploration of a woman’s obligation to society versus her desire for independence.

DEC 22

11AM-1PM Sweetie The story a hazardous relationship between two sisters, their family dynamic and how life always seems to get in the way.

DEC 23

10AM-12PM Bright Star The truth behind a doomed love affair, and how the ecstasy of love and hate cannot thwart the true purpose of romance.

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DATE DEC 20

LECTURE SERIES 3PM-5PM Jessica Valenti Valenti is a seasoned activist for women’s rights. She presents fresh visions of feminism that debunks myths and focuses on the future.

DEC 21

1PM-3PM Amber Madison Author of “Hooking Up: A Girl’s Guide to Sex & Sexuality.” Amber speaks to young adults about sex in simple non-clinical language.

DEC 22

2PM-4PM Stephanie Coontz Coontz addresses the nature of marriage, the diversity of family life and structure, and issues of work and family in the 21st century.

DEC 23

1PM-3PM Suzie Bright Bright pushes the borders of propriety until they blur and become irrelevant, proving that sexual knowledge can indeed be salvation and inspiration.

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DEC 20, 3PM-5PM

DEC 22, 2PM-4PM

Jessica Valenti Founder of Feministing.com, Valenti is author of the recently released “The Purity Myth,” as well as “Full Frontal Feminism: A Young Woman’s Guide to Why Feminism Matters.” Valenti is a seasoned activist for women’s rights and presents a fresh vision of feminism that debunks the myths and focuses on the future.

Stephanie Coontz Addressing the nature of marriage and the diversity of family life and structure, Coontz is one of the most widely quoted researchers on family issues today, and the author of six books on family history and sociology. She draws on history, facts, statistics, and anecdotes to challenge myths about marriage, parenting and family relations.

DEC 21, 1PM-3PM

DEC 23, 1PM-3PM

Amber Madison America’s teenagers and young adults want the straight talk about sex. Amber Madison, author of “Hooking Up: A Girl’s All-out Guide to Sex & Sexuality” gives them what they want in simple non-clinical language.

Suzie Bright One of the first writers/activists referred to as a sex-positive feminist, Bright pushes the borders of propriety until they blur and become irrelevant, proving that sexual knowledge can also be salvation and inspiration.

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ADDRESS 55 Thorndon Quay Wellington, New Zealand

PHONE 04 472 1626

ABOUT The festival takes place at the beautiful Te Kainga Pipita Marae, a large, modern marae built in the early 1980s to meet the needs of the urban Maori of Wellington. It is a place for people of all races and backgrounds to meet free of judgement on common ground.

A marae serves as the perfect home for the Tempest Within because it is at the heart of the community that we might feel safe to explore some of society’s most difficult questions, such as the ones found within the stories of Jane Campion’s female characters.

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1 FOOD & BEVERAGES 2 MOVIE SCREENING 3 RESTROOMS 4 LECTURE SERIES 5 MARAE INFO 6 THERAPY GARDENS

ABOUT THE DIRECTOR

Jane Campion’s life, as befits all great story tellers, is a melodrama full of eccentric characters, jealousy, money, religious fanaticism and fantastic backdrops; Born in Wellington, New Zealand, on 30 April 1954, Jane was the second child born to Edith and Richard Campion - she has an older sister, Anna and younger brother, Michael.

After an unconventional childhood in New Zealand, Campion took the first opportunity to leave. She travelled throughout Europe before returning to New Zealand to study for a BA in Anthropology at the University of Wellington. Still unsure about what direction her life should take, she returned to Europe for inspiration.

Whilst studying in London, she began to take an interest in film, an interest which she casually continued whilst studying for her

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at the prestigious Australian Film and Television School. Campion is one of those rare directors, whose background and filmography do not immediately shout out major film-maker at work. She has journeyed from the ‘provincial’ New Zealand to the toast of both Hollywood and arthouse cineastes. She is a film-maker who attracts A-list stars to perform in her films, stars who are prepared to drop their usual salaries to put their personal image and persona on the line.

For the first ten years of Campion’s life, her parents were mainly absent and she and Anna were left in the care of a series of nannies who were strict and unloving. Like their parents before them, the Campion sisters had a lonely childhood so they retreated into their own private fantasy worlds for companionship and expression.

Growing up she heard the stories of her parents; childhood and their meeting. Richard and Edith Campion’s story is one full of tragedy and romance befitting their theatrical natures. Edith was an orphan, but also an heiress to a considerable fortune from her grandfather’s shoe factory - she was brought up by a series of governesses and endured a solitary childhood.

By the age of 17 Campion had rebelliously rejected all artistic ambitions and went to the University of Wellington, where she gained a BA in Anthropology. This education has been instrumental in creating the diverse characters in her films, who seem like case studies in examining social, historical and familial impacts on personalities. These characters are often shown on the verge of transition, and through Campion’s narratives they are observed failing or triumphing life’s turning points.

Richard was brought up within the strict teachings of a religious group called the Exclusive Brethren, who did not allow radio, books, film and theatre visits. At aged 14 he rebelled and was no longer allowed to mix with his family. Both had very different backgrounds, but shared the same sense of loneliness so that when they met on a cable car or at the Old Vic Theatre in London, they found an immediate sense of twinning - they had found their other half.

After studying for three years, Campion was still unsure of a direction in life, but knew she had to escape New Zealand. She returned to Europe to rekindle her interest in painting, she returned ‘down under’ to take up a place at the Sydney College of Art to complete her second degree, this time in Painting. Like her Anthropology, studying the mechanics and beauty of painting adds further dimensions to her films. Even if they fail narratively, they are always stylistically stunning.

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WOMEN MUST DISCOVER THEIR OWN INDEPENDENCE WITHIN SOCIETY’S ROLES. By the time she entered the Australian Film and Television School she had a strong vision both spiritually and visually of the kind of films that she wanted to make. From her earliest short film, there is a definite background and development from shy child to confident film-maker. These visions did not ingratiate her with the lecturers at the Film School, who thought Campion “arrogant and not particularly talented.” Campion’s life-story is one worthy of filming. Fuof exotic locations, strong independent women, dysfunctional families, squabbling siblings, neglectful parents and love. But who could direct such a film? it would require a director with an understanding of such a background.

incestuous and often just plain surreal. There is very little love shown between siblings, mothers and daughters, fathers and sons, husbands and wives. It is as though families only function as a unit tied together by pain and conflict.

Like any film-maker who has the power to write, direct and produce films (which Campion does in most cases), their films have a unique vision, one where themes and distinctive visual styles can be traced from their earliest student short. In Campion’s case, from An Exercise In Discipline - Peel (1982) through to Holy Smoke (1999), there are a number of major themes which have evolved out of her own life story.

“What I think about families is that they’re incredibly funny at times and yet there is a tragic underbelly”.

Families in Campion’s films are portrayed as rebellious, cruel, manipulative, misguided,

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Jane Campion’s films have remained consistent in theme. They depict the lives of girls and women who are somehow separate from the mainstream, whether physical appearance, disability or personality quirk, and she spotlights the way in which they relate to and function within respective societies.

Bright Star 2009 Eight 2008 Abduction 2006 Water Diary 2006 In the Cut 2003 Soft Fruit 1999 Holy Smoke 1999 Portrait of a Lady 1996 The Piano 1993 Angel at my Table 1990 Sweetie 1989 Two Friends 1986 Girl’s Own Story 1984

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Screenwriter, Director Director, Writer Executive Producer Screenwriter, Director Director, Writer Executive Producer Director, Writer Director Director, Writer Director Casting, Director Director Screenwriter, Director

Campion debuted her first theatrical full feature, Sweetie (1989); a very, very black comedy about the strained relationship between an overweight, fairly insane young woman, her meek, skinny sister and the rest of her family, the film received a markedly love-itor-hate-it response.

In contrast, Campion’s subsequent effort, An Angel at My Table (1990), earned an incredibly enthusiastic response, one that heralded her breakthrough as a director. Telling the story of renowned New Zealand writer Janet Frame, who endured years of institutionalization after being falsely diagnosed with schizophrenia. Campion chose a simple -but never simplistic -- approach to her material, using unsentimental honesty to blend comedy, tragedy, naturalism, and surrealism.

Her resulting portrait of a woman’s intellectual evolution won great acclaim and a Special Prize at the Venice Film Festival.

With The Piano (1993), Campion traded intellectual evolution for sexual and erotic development. A beautifully told, deceptively simple story, it had as its protagonist Ada (Holly Hunter), a willfully mute Scottish widow who travels with her nine-year-old daughter (Anna Paquin) to New Zealand, where she enters into an arranged marriage with a taciturn, emotionally distant farmer (Sam Neill). Her subsequent affair with her neighbor (Harvey Keitel), which is carried

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out under the guise of piano lessons, was depicted with scorching yet understated passion, and ably underscored Ada’s own multifaceted emotional and erotic development. One of the year’s most celebrated films, The Piano put Campion at the forefront of contemporary cinema, and earned dozens of prestigious awards.

Campion next created Portrait of a Lady. A moody, highly stylized piece, it fused the director’s proclivity for surrealist fantasy with her fascination with strong women chafing against the bonds of society.

Campion resurfaced with Holy Smoke (1999) about a young Australian woman whose family brings in a deprogrammer to “cure” her of the cultish spiritual teachings she picked up on a trip to India, it revolved around yet another strong, vibrant woman’s turbulent relationship with the society surrounding her.

FEATURED FILMS

INFORMATION

SYNOPSIS

Date Released: November 12, 1993 Running Time: 121 min Genre: Drama, Romance Rated: R Filming Locations: AK, NZ Budget: $7,000,000 Gross: $40,158,000

Writer/director Jane Campion’s third feature unearthed emotional undercurrents and churning intensity in the story of a mute woman’s rebellion in the recently colonized New Zealand wilderness of Victorian times.

Ada McGrath (Holly Hunter), a mute who has willed herself not to speak, and her strongwilled young daughter Flora (Anna Paquin) find themselves in the New Zealand wilderness, with Ada the imported bride of dullard land-grabber Stewart (Sam Neill). Ada immediately takes a dislike to Stewart when he refuses to carry her beloved piano home with them. But Stewart makes a deal with his overseer George Baines (Harvey Keitel) to take the piano off his hands.

Attracted to Ada, Baines agrees to return the piano in exchange for a series of piano lessons that become a series of increasingly

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charged sexual encounters. As pent-up emotions of rage and desire swirl around all three characters, the savage wilderness begins to consume the tiny European enclave.

Campion imbues her tale with an over-ripe tactility and a murky, poetic undertow that betray the characters’ confined yet overpowering emotions: Ada’s buried sensuality, Baines’ hidden tenderness, and Stewart’s suppressed anger and violence. The story unfolds like a Greek tragedy of the Outback, complete with a Greek chorus of Maori tribesmen and a blithely uncaring natural environment that envelops the characters like an additional player.

between a character’s fingers. She makes the film immediate and urgent by implicating the audience in characters’ gazes.

And she guides Hunter to a revelatory performance of silent film majesty. Relying on expressive glances and using body language to convey her soulful depths, Hunter became a modern Lillian Gish and won an Oscar for her performance, as did Paquin and Campion for her screenplay. Campion achieved something rare in contemporary cinema: a poetry of expression told in the form of an off-center melodramatic twist.

Campion directs with discreet detachment, observing one character through the glances and squints of another as they peer through wooden slats, airy curtains, and the spaces

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INFORMATION

SYNOPSIS

Date Released: November 12, 1993 Running Time: 121 min Genre: Drama, Romance Rated: R for Moments of graphic sexuality Filming Locations: AK, NZ Budget: $7,000,000 Gross: $40,158,000

Writer/director Jane Campion’s third feature portrays Isabel Archer, a young, beautiful, and decidedly interesting American girl, who arrives to tay at the Touchett home, a spacious estate in southern England.

She takes a liking to her uncle, Mr. Touchett, her cousin Ralph, and assorted dogs. A family friend, Lord Warburton, is also present, and he’s immediately interested in her.

Shortly thereafter, the smitten nobleman proposes to Isabel, but, despite his personal and financial charms, she turns him down.

It seems that Isabel is in high demand, as another suitor, Caspar Goodwood, arrives from Boston to continue to woo her. Another of Isabel’s American friends, an adventurous young female journalist named Henrietta Stackpole, also arrives on the scene, eager to report on European life to her newspaper

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stateside. Isabel, Henrietta, and Ralph take a field trip to London for some time, where Isabel encounters Caspar Goodwood, who also proposes. Despite her attraction to him, Isabel turns him down as well.

Isabel meets Madame Merle, an old friend of Mrs. Touchett’s, and the two become fast friends. Sadly, old Mr. Touchett dies, but not before Ralph convinces him to leave Isabel a fortune, so that she may live as she chooses.

After Mr. Touchett’s death and the divvying up of money, Madame Merle takes an interest in Isabel and introduces her to a rather mysterious acquaintance, Gilbert Osmond.

Osmond is a passionate collector of beautiful things: including art, furniture, and his lovely and innocent adolescent daughter, Pansy.

Isabel’s family and friends begin to wonder if this strange man intends to make Isabel a

part of his collection. After two years, Isabel and Osmond are married and live in a gorgeous old palace in Rome.

We learn that Isabel had a baby, but the child died after six months. Isabel is wholly miserable in her marriage, but she is too proud to show her mistake to anyone. She isolates herself from her dearest friends, including Ralph, whose health is steadily declining.

Osmond controls her life, and takes from Isabel the most important thing she possessed: her independence.

Osmond is furious at Isabel for failing him in this task. The news that Ralph is dying back in England and wants Isabel to come see him one last time makes matters worse – Osmond refuses to let his wife go.

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INFORMATION

SYNOPSIS

Date Released: September 28, 1989 Running Time: 97 min Genre: Drama, Comedy Rated: R for violence, graphic sexuality Filming Locations: AU Gross: $938,065

New Zealand-born filmmaker Jane Campion directs the darkly humorous family drama Sweetie. Thin and mousy Kay (Karen Colson) works in a factory and lives a dreary existence with her well-meaning boyfriend, Louis (Tom Lycos). One day, her sister Dawn (Genevieve Lemon) arrives with her so-called manager, Bob (Michael Lake).

Nicknamed Sweetie, Dawn is everything Kay is not: boisterous, impulsive, and overweight.

Kay is consumed with uptight phobias, while Dawn hangs on to her unrealistic childhood dreams of show business. Meanwhile, their parents, Gordon (Jon Darling) and Flo (Dorothy Barry), are involved in a strange separation.

Kay, Louis, and Gordon trick Dawn so they can visit Flo at a ranch in the Australian outback. Everyone gets together back at the

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family home where Dawn pulls an immature stunt, exposing the psychological realities of the situation.

However bleak Sweetie becomes, Campion prefers lyricism and ambiguity to full-blown tragedy. Every interior space houses an intricate design pattern, melding floral wallpaper, colorful shades, and unique carpets resulting in a warmth that offsets the character’s deepening angst.

Campion’s off-kilter compositions reveal poetry as well, with Kay’s legs, hands, and mouth often framed to punctuate the heightened mood of a specific moment. Sensuality lingers on the periphery like many other desires waiting to be discovered and not repressed. The densely personal mise-enscène, often brimming with color and shade, beautifully reflects Campion’s diverse choices of music.

resentful adulthood is filled with small reminders of such a transition. Sweetie’s brilliance stems from how Campion inventively explores the relationship between inanimate objects and personal memory, Sally Bongers’s static camera lingering on the precipice of a family unit brimming with secrets and lies.

In order to understand why these experiences continue to affect us, we must allow them to branch out, flourish, and become ours again—truly passionate moments.

The long road from hopeful childhood to

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INFORMATION

SYNOPSIS

Date Released: September 16, 2009 Running Time: 119 min Genre: Biography, Romance, Drama Rated: PG Filming Locations: UK, IT Budget: $8,5000,000 Gross: $4.444.637

In 1818 Hampstead, the fashionable Fanny Brawne (Abbie Cornish) is introduced to poet John Keats (Ben Whishaw) through the Dilke family.

Though Fanny’s flirtatious personality contrasts with Keats’ notably more aloof nature, she begins to pursue him after she has her siblings, Samuel and Toots, obtain his book of poetry “Endymion”.

Despite her efforts to interact with the poet it is only after witnessing her grief for the loss of his brother Tom that Keats begins to open up to Fanny’s advances, where he spends Christmas with the Brawne family.

After Keats begins to give poetry lessons to Fanny it becomes apparent that their attraction is mutual, however Fanny is nevertheless troubled in regards to Keats’ reluctance to pursue her, for which her mother (Kerry Fox) summarizes, “Mr Keats knows he cannot like you, he has no living and no income”.

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It is only after Fanny receives a valentine from Brown that Keats passionately confronts them and wonders if they are lovers. Brown, who sent the valentine in jest, warns Keats of Fanny, claiming that she is a mere flirt playing a game.

with the Brawne family following an incident in relation to his illness. It is here that, after his book sells with moderate success, that Fanny’s mother gives Keats her blessing to marry Fanny once he returns from Italy.

On the other hand, Fanny, hurt by the accusations and Keats’ lack of faith in her, ends their lessons and leaves. The relationship comes to an abrupt end, however, after Brown leaves for his summer rental with Keats, so that Keats may earn some money.

The night before Keats must leave for Italy he and Fanny say their tearful goodbye in privacy, and in February—while still in Italy—Keats dies of complications from tuberculosis, just as his brother Tom did earlier in the film.

Though Fanny is heartbroken, she is comforted

by Keats’ love letters. When the men return in the autumn, Fanny’s mother shows concern, feeling that Fanny’s attachment with the poet will hinder her from being courted. Secretly, however, Fanny and Keats are engaged. When Keats becomes ill the following winter, he spends several weeks recovering

In the last moments of the film Fanny cuts her hair in an act of mourning, dons black attire, and walks the snowy paths outside that Keats had walked many times in life. It is there that she recites the love sonnet he had written for her, “Bright Star”, as she grieves the death of her lover.

Though Keats manages to find residence in London for the summer, he is taken in to live

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INTERVIEWS

INTERVIEWER:

When I was doing research, the first post on the IMDB message board struck me. It was “Is Jane a feminist filmmaker?”

How would you answer that user?

JANE CAMPION:

(Long pause.) That’s a loaded comment, isn’t it? In the sense that I’m led by doctrine, no. When I look at this film, I think you can see that I’m interested in seeing it from Fanny’s point of view. And there’s the sense that it’s simply because I’m a woman and there aren’t a lot of women out there making movies. So it seems unusual to see things from their own sex’s point of view.

In fact, it’s pretty common. (Laughs.). If fifty percent of directors were women, then fifty percent of the material we received in the world would be more even. But it’s kind of sad that it’s unusual.

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INTERVIEWER: Why is it that way? Why is it such a boy’s club?

CAMPION: Interestingly, it’s probably to do with the money. In our countries, Australia, New Zealand, all finance comes from the government. As a friend of mine said, “Feminism has no natural predators in Australia and New Zealand.” It took the place by storm.

The early feminists in the film industry insisted on equal representation. You’re all paying taxes and you want an equal share of the money. That was a real concern at first.

The fact is we’re all being shortchanged by not seeing things from a female perspective.

INTERVIEWER :

Do you think it’s gotten better since you started?

CAMPION: 52

No. That’s a misconception. These

situations are far more conservative than you realize. It’s very, very entrenched. In the women as well.

INTERVIEWER:

You mean women holding themselves back?

CAMPION:

Ideas about what’s attractive between women. This idea that men should be dominant and women should be submissive leads to very different ideas of themselves in the world. The director is a dominant position. It’s a relationship and women really value relationships. More diversity would be really great. Guys can be really sensitive too.

It’s nothing like that. It’s something else. I don’t think women own sensitivity.

INTERVIEWER :

Did you want to say something about the predicament of modern women?

WOMEN OFTEN POSTPONE THEIR LIVES, THINKING THAT IF THEY’RE NOT WITH A PARTNER THEN IT DOESN’T COUNT.

CAMPION: Women today are dealing with both their independence and also the fact that their lives are built around finding and satisfying the romantic models we grew up with.

The story gave us an opportunity to see how that model falls short for us, and creates enormous amounts of grief. Women often postpone their lives, thinking that if they’re not with a partner then it doesn’t really count. They’re still searching for their prince, in a way. And as much as we don’t discuss that, because it’s too embarrassing and too sad, I think it really does exist.

INTERVIEWER :

Do you worry about the film not finding a large audience?

“Oh well, I guess I’ll do Batman.” I mean, you could. But, I think if you love and respond to something then people will too if they get the opportunity. This is not a very difficult film.

It’s an accessible film. We’ve proved that in Cannes. It has a very wide response. You just have to have access to your emotions and you can enjoy this movie. It’s incredibly accessible. My daughter, friends, people who know nothing about Keats – they just love it.

It’s a very emotional story. Just come and it will be fine.

INTERVIEWER:

That’s a good tagline – Just come and it will be fine.

CAMPION: More than fine. Thrilling. (Laughs.)

CAMPION: I

can’t concern myself. We have to try. Diversity in the world is attractive to me.

You have to be a soldier for it. You can’t go,

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INTERVIEWER: How did you prepare for the role of John Keats?

WHISHAW: Well, I guess my preparation mainly involved reading. Jane said to me a few months before we began shooting, “You have to be the expert on Keats.” If anyone wants to know something about Keats, they should be able to come to me and I should answer it.

Jane said to me quite often, “Ben, you’re trying too hard—just relax.” She wanted the performances in this film to be unforced, simple and pure. She achieved that by making everyone feel very relaxed with each other and with themselves.

INTERVIEWER: What were your first thoughts on the script?

WHISHAW: I had a feeling of ownership. This is 54

my part. I can do it. I wasn’t going to let anyone have it. Sometimes, you have that strong sense of, ‘I’ve got something inside of me that I can share and meld with the character very well.’ I don’t know why I felt that way, but I did. I think what’s great about Keats, as I come to understand him, is his mixture of sensitivity and robustness. He’s tough, he’s not an overly sentimental person, not at all self-pitying, and he has a straight down the line personality.

other we knew we would get along. We were both on the same page, both knew what was required, and, again, trusted each other implicitly. It wasn’t something that we talked about or worked too hard at, discussed or analyzed in any way, it just seems to be there—the bond that we had.

INTERVIEWER: Can you talk about Jane’s process

film people will approach poetry differently.

Maybe even write their own poetry. Hopefully, it would be a less fearful idea to them. That’s a hope we all have for the film.

as a director?

WHISHAW:

Rehearsal is very important to her.

She loves to feel like she has explored the scene from every possible perspective and angle. She’s very detailed in her preparation but what I find remarkable about Jane is that when it came to the shoot she would be completely open to whatever was happening on that day. With Jane, I was always felt there was, above all, trust. She trusted and loved the people she hired.

INTERVIEWER: The

romance between you and Abbie seems so real, how did you both achieve that level of comfort?

WHISHAW: It’s a bit of a mysterious thing. We didn’t audition together, or meet before we started shooting. As soon as we met each

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INTERVIEWER: What do you hope this movie will do for audiences?

WHISHAW: I would hope that after watching the

INTERVIEWER: What’s next for you?

Whishaw: I am doing a couple of plays—one in London and another in New York. The play I’m doing in London is called Cock. It’s about chickens. [Laughs]. I’m doing another play in New York called The Pride—this will be an American premiere and the first time I perform on a stage in New York.

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GLUE