THE POWER OF THE DOG

MIND THE GAP / US / WORLD

UK/Australia/US/Canada/New Zealand 2021, 125 min Director Jane Campion

Set on a ranch in mid-1920s Montana, Jane Campion’s (The Piano, MVFF 1994) first Western is a rich story of longing, love, and betrayal. Beautifully shot, the expansiveness of the outer landscape is a counterpoint to the inner landscapes of her characters, an undercurrent of tension, suppressed feelings, and brooding eroticism lying just beneath the surface. In a striking performance, Benedict Cumberbatch is a powerful, charismatic, very physical presence throughout the film as Phil, a well-heeled rancher, who’s a consummate bully, a man of the land, as macho as he is cultured. Phil co-owns the family property with his stoic and upright brother George (Jesse Plemons). When George brings home a wife, the widowed Rose (Kirsten Dunst) and her son Peter (Kodi Smit-McPhee), Phil’s finely-controlled world is thrown out of kilter. Campion brings her extraordinary artist’s eye and sensibility to her adaptation of Thomas Savage’s novel, with an uncanny ability to peer beneath the surface of human behavior and reveal both mind and heart. She again proves herself one of the most original and compelling filmmakers today. –Zoë Elton

Our October 8 Tribute program features an onstage conversation with writer-director Jane Campion, a screening of The Power of the Dog, and the presentation of the Mind the Gap Award.

Sponsored by

NANCY P. and RICHARD K. ROBBINS FAMILY FOUNDATION

GET TICKETS

IN-THEATER

Friday, October 8, 6:00pm, Smith Rafael Film Center (Tribute program)

$40 Member | $45 General

Film + Reception: $75 Member | $85 General

Sunday, Oct 10, 11:00am, Smith Rafael Film Center

Tuesday, Oct 12, 2:30pm, CinéArts Sequoia

$14 Member | $16.50 General | $15 Senior | $8 Students & Youth (12 & Under)

DIRECTOR

Tribute: Jane Campion | Mind the Gap Award

Throughout her career, Jane Campion has been a groundbreaker. Not just because in 1993 she was the first director who’s a woman to win the prestigious Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival for The Piano. And not just because, also for The Piano, she was the second female director to receive a Best Director Academy Award nomination (we are now up to 7 nominations and two wins, after 93 years), winning for Best Original Screenplay that same year. But she’s also a groundbreaker as a filmmaker because she is truly an artist, one whose career has been uncompromisingly on her own terms, rooted in her own sensibilities. There is a nature, drive, and vision that always makes her films so distinctive. From the estimable talent that revealed itself in her early shorts (Peel, Passionless Moments, A Girl’s Own Story), she began a journey through life and art that is distinguished by a singular commitment to a sensibility that is distinctively Campion-esque. Her work embraces people who may be a little oddball, outsider, eccentric (An Angel At My Table, Sweetie, The Piano), whose lives may reveal some kind of subversiveness (In the Cut) or spiritual quandary (Holy Smoke!). She upped the ante in her foray into episodic storytelling (Top of the Lake). All of Campion’s work is rendered with a beautiful sense of the art and craft of filmmaking, notable cinematography, and music, tempered through the sensibility of the artist she is. No wonder she is held in such esteem; no wonder she continues to be a role model for so many. She’s one of the greats.

FILM INFO

COUNTRY:UK, Australia, US, Canada, New Zealand
YEAR:2021
RUNNING TIME:125 min
LANGUAGE:English
DIRECTOR:Jane Campion
WRITER:Jane Campion, Thomas Savage (novel)
PRODUCERS:Jane Campion, Iain Canning, Roger Frappier, Tanya Seghatchian, Emile Sherman
CINEMATOGRAPHER:Ari Wegner

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