{"id":474180,"date":"2026-06-12T19:01:13","date_gmt":"2026-06-12T19:01:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/474180\/"},"modified":"2026-06-12T19:01:13","modified_gmt":"2026-06-12T19:01:13","slug":"jane-campion-harvey-weinsteins-piano-awards-campaign-was-brilliant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/474180\/","title":{"rendered":"Jane Campion: Harvey Weinstein’s ‘Piano’ Awards Campaign Was Brilliant"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tOscar-winning filmmaker Jane Campion<\/a>, who is presiding over the jury at this year\u2019s Taormina Film Festival<\/a>, dedicated a great part of her time in Sicily to revisiting her 1993 seminal drama \u201cThe Piano<\/a>.\u201d Accompanied in the jury by the film\u2019s star, Holly Hunter, the New Zealand director spoke to journalists about her memories of making the successful film, from the \u201cunbelievable\u201d support she had from private financiers to the \u201cbrilliant\u201d marketing campaign by disgraced producer Harvey Weinstein<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\tAsked by Variety about how \u201cThe Piano,\u201d a film about a mute woman and her daughter exiled in New Zealand, went from a supposed small, arthouse drama to a major global box office phenomenon \u2014 the film grossed $140.2 million worldwide on a $7 million budget \u2014 Campion paused and said: \u201cCan I say one thing that\u2019s going to be very disturbing? Harvey Weinstein, as we know, did some horrific things, but he also did some great things for the arts and for getting audiences. He was bold in that way. He loved films. I have to admit, [the marketing strategy] was his vision.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWeinstein was the head of major distribution company Miramax, which acquired the rights for \u201cThe Piano\u201d early in 1993. The exec had an aggressive awards campaign for the drama, which eventually won three Academy Awards, including best original screenplay for Campion.<\/p>\n

\n\tEnquired by Variety about her work on the 4K restoration of \u201cThe Piano,\u201d being released by Sony Pictures Classics in the U.S. on July 24th and overseen by Campion and cinematographer Stuart Dryburgh, the director said she is \u201creally humbled to feel the film still has energy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cHaving seen the film myself again during the restoration process, I was kind of stunned by how gutsy it is, especially [Hunter\u2019s] performance as Ava and this idea of this woman who doesn\u2019t speak still feels a really strong message for women about the situation they\u2019re in,\u201d she pointed out. \u201cWhy bother participating if no one is listening?\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tCampion was then asked about how things may (or may not) have changed for women in the three decades since the film\u2019s original release. \u201cI don\u2019t know any more than you,\u201d she said, adding that \u201cit feels there is a really big price to pay for the #MeToo movement.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cAbortion, for example, being withdrawn in America,\u201d she continued. \u201cAnd the sense that the sort of patriarchy is really wanting to stretch back their ground, you know? That\u2019s my sense. The positive, however, is that women now make money in a way that they didn\u2019t use to. They have their profession, they have their money and they want films that talk to them, not just Marvel movies. They want their own cinema. You really see the change in TV, in online material. In this way, those women are very powerful and they change the conditions for us. It has given many more female directors opportunities, and that\u2019s not going away, unless they say you have to stay home, look after the children or something. Vote? No. Let\u2019s take that vote away.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\u201cThe Piano,\u201d courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics<\/p>\n

\n\tCampion also recalled the experience of working with Ciby 2000, a French film production and distribution company founded in 1990 by Francis Bouygues, which was behind major films such as Pedro Almod\u00f3var\u2019s \u201cLive Flesh,\u201d David Lynch\u2019s \u201cTwin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me\u201d and \u201dLost Highway\u201d and Mike Leigh\u2019s \u201cSecrets & Lies.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThese people were previously roadmakers; they made concrete,\u201d Campion said of the investors. \u201cThe guy who was the head of it all suddenly went to see a Bertolucci film, I think it was \u2018The Last Emperor,\u2019 and he was stunned. He decided to devote some of his fortune to making similar films and giving filmmakers like myself freedom to do exactly what they want. I\u2019ve had a long career and had several of those experiences, even Netflix had that moment when they were very generous with their money, or I wouldn\u2019t have made \u2018The Power of the Dog.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tCampion said \u201csome very cool works\u201d come out of partnerships, as she had with the French company, adding: \u201cThey were very generous with the profits, we were able to share 50\/50. Unbelievable.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAs for future projects, the director said she is currently having great \u201cfun\u201d with her Wellington-based pop-up film school, A Wave in the Ocean, funded partially by Netflix. Campion also said she is currently working on a musical, but kept any details on the project under wraps.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Oscar-winning filmmaker Jane Campion, who is presiding over the jury at this year\u2019s Taormina Film Festival, dedicated a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":474181,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[430,156,69813,52714,111,139,69,239092,239093],"class_list":["post-474180","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment","tag-harvey-weinstein","tag-jane-campion","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-taormina-film-festival","tag-the-piano"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/474180","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=474180"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/474180\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/474181"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=474180"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=474180"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=474180"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}