SWEETIE

Australia, 1989, 97 minutes, Colour.
Genevieve Lemon, Karen Colston, Tom Lycos.
Directed by Jane Campion.

Sweetie was the first feature film from Jane Campion. Previously she had made a number of short films, including winning a short films prize at Cannes. She made the television film, Two Friends, written by novelist Helen Garner.

With Sweetie, Jane Campion made a very strong impact, especially with the offbeat nature of the film and its black humour. Her next project was the biography of Janet Frame, An Angel at My Table. Within years she had won an Oscar for The Piano and made such films as Portrait of a Lady, Holy Smoke. She slowed down in terms of direction in the first part of the 21st century with In the Cut and Bright Star.

The co-writer of this film is Gerard Lee, director of All Men Are Liars. After a fifteen years hiatus from writing, he combined with Jane Campion to write the miniseries, Top of the Lake.

The film stars Genevieve Lemon (Billy’s Holiday, The Well, Holy Smoke, Soft Fruit). She plays the mentally impaired Dawn, nicknamed Sweetie. Her sister is Kay (Karen Colston), tall and gangly, the opposite of the short and rotund Dawn. She too has her problems, though she is married. The parents don't seem to be able to see the difficulties in either daughter.

The film offers all kinds of eccentric behaviour, wry comedy, insight into mental illness and people’s inability to cope with it.

1. The impact of the film? Acclaim?

2. The beginning of Jane Campion’s career, her subsequent career, visual styles, choice of themes?

3. The offbeat nature of the film: subject, mood and feel, structure, focus, logic and illogic, the tangents?

4. The colour photography and locations? Interiors and exteriors? The compositions and the transition between them?

5. The musical score, the songs, the choral work, the comment on the action?

6. The title, Dawn as Sweetie, as each of the characters used the nickname for her? Especially Kay, her father?

7. The Australian atmosphere, the suburbs, homes, workplaces? The contrast with the Outback? The blend of the real and the surreal?

8. The portrait of Kay, the focus, seeing her at work, the background of her childhood, the trees? Tealeaves – and the decision to marry a man, his moustache? Her relationship with Louis? Her height, attractiveness – or not – sexuality, the experience in the car? The thirteen months, together, the relationship, ordinary and extraordinary? Work, the importance of the sexual behaviour, the house? The kid next door? The meanings in her life?

9. Kay and the house, Louis and Cheryl, sex, no sex? The detail of life in the house? The crisis, relationships, coping, separation?

10. The character of Dawn, her appearance? With the producer? Her mental age, sexually precocious, the drugs, her presence, taking over? The effect on Kay and Louis? Dawn and her size, her memories and singing? Her parents spoiling her? Her mental behaviour? Acting out, incestuous relationships, at home, dominating? Earthy, her language? The beach? Louis and his behaviour, impulsive? Eating? The restaurant and getting rid of the producer, his sleeping, the coat? Dawn’s relationship with her father? Impetuous, the boy next door, sulking? Sitting in the car? Tricked?

11. Gordon and his wife, their life, separation – the reasons? Reactions? Dinner? The attention to Kay, the attention to Dawn? Fitting in? What more could he have done for Dawn? His relationship with his wife, their attitude towards their children? The plan, the trick, travelling, upset, going away, the effect on his wife, their meeting, the experience of the cook? Singing? Together, concern, the return? The discussion in the desert?

12. Kay and Louis, going on the trip, its effect on them, the return, the future?

13. Dawn, in the tree, her angers, at one with nature, the boy, climbing up, the ladder, going down and falling? Death?

14. The funeral and its effect, people and their reactions? Louis and Kay together?

15. The nature of the offbeat humour, the black tone – yet the bright light of the film? The focus, relationships, men and women, earthiness, real and unreal? Moving towards some kind of resolution and hope?