Today's female filmmaker is one of the most celebrated and awarded directors of our time. We are talking, of course, about the Academy Award-winning director Jane Campion who managed to make A-list stars do HOT nude scenes.
Jane is most famous for winning the Oscar for her 1993 film The Piano, but she has had an amazing and critically acclaimed career before and after that hit film. This kiwi seems to really know what she's doing!
Jane comes from New Zealand where she initially studied anthropology in university and then did a stint at an art school studying painting. Neither thing really spoke to her although both definitely informed her work later in life. Finally, she went to the Australian of School and Television to actually learn about filmmaking. She made her first short film in 1982 which wound up winning the Palme D'Or at Cannes.
Her first feature film was 1989's Sweetie which starred Karen Colston as an eccentric woman named Kay who is trying to search for love. She seeks the advice of a fortune teller when it comes to love and also tries to balance her romantic issues with taking care of her mentally ill sister named Sweetie.
Campion does an excellent job at showing their relationship to each other and the outside world in this Aussie film. Karen goes nude several times as does Genevieve Lemon who plays Sweetie. It's certainly one of her more light-hearted and tender films and it is also part of the Criterion Collection.
Now let's really dive into The Piano starring Holly Hunter. In this period piece, Campion managed to direct Holly Hunter in a totally nude scene. Jane wrote and directed this film that takes place in the 1800s in New Zealand. A woman who can't speak is arranged to be married to a rich landowner. She and her younger sister go to live with him on the plantation in anticipation of the wedding where she gets pursued by a local worker.
Jane became the second woman ever to win the Academy Award in directing, following maverick Lina Wertmuller for Seven Beauties before her. It's not hard to see why! This film is beautiful and Holly Hunter is even more beautiful when she is fully nude for her sex scene:
An Angel at My Table gave us Kerry Fox, the redheaded minx with bright and bouncy curls. She goes nude in several scenes, including a wonderful skinny dipping scene in broad daylight.
The film takes place in the 20s and 30s in New Zealand, where Kerry plays a poor woman named Janet Frame who grew up in a large family. She winds up being considered strange by a teacher at school who sends her to a mental institution for eight years. She begins to write novels and that is when she finds real freedom and expression in her life. It's a tender, inspiring story where Kerry hopefully inspired more people to lust over her.
1996's The Portrait of a Lady was based on a novel by Henry James and starred Nicole Kidman. Nicole even went nude in one brief part of the film. Even though Jane is a New Zealander and Nicole is an Aussie, Nicole winds up playing an American in this film. She plays an American woman who inherits a huge fortune and falls for a con man who wants to use her money to his advantage.
This does not work out well for the woman who gets swindled in this film that is yet another period piece that takes place at the turn of the 20th century. The film features a portrait of Nicole topless!
One of her most fun films is 1999's Holy Smoke! which starred Kate Winslet and Harvey Keitel. Kate goes wonderfully nude often in the movie. She even goes full-frontal twice!
Kate plays a woman named Ruth who followed a con artist guru in India and wound up being brainwashed by his cult. When her parents hire a specialist to take her back to Australia and de-program her, things get really messy! She goes nude and the sexy Sophie Lee shows up in her leopard print bra and panties.
Watch this scene here where Kate is naked from breasts to bush as she approaches Harvey outside in the middle of the night. 90s Kate is the very best Kate because she was constantly going nude. Here's yet another reason to love Kate Winslet and Jane Campion:
In 2003's thriller In the Cut, Jane went a totally different route. No more Australians or Brits. No more period pieces. She went for a gritty, New York, crime thriller! She gave America's Sweetheart Meg Ryan a break from playing romantic comedy roles to be a writing professor in New York City who has an affair with a detective investigating a homicide nearby.
He takes a break from police work to investigate Meg's naked body! Meg goes nude multiple times in the movie, letting us check out her mams when she is in the bathtub or dressing and undressing in her bedroom. Plus, you can check out her bush!
Jane's last film was 2009's Bright Star which featured no nudity, but she has been very busy. She wrote and directed the mini-series Top of the Lake which starred Elisabeth Moss as Detective Robin Griffin. Leave it to Jane to be responsible for Elisabeth Moss' best nude scene yet!
Jane Campion is one of the most celebrated and critically acclaimed directors period. While her work has slowed down in the past decade, I have no doubt that she will return again in full force when this pesky pandemic is underway. She has more visionary work - and stellar nude scenes with A-list celebrities - to do!
