The films of Jane Campion have brought the New Zealander an array of prestigious critical awards in just a few short years. Perhaps more rewarding, however, is the acceptance her work has found inside the corporate-run world of contemporary commercial entertainment, for the subject matter in Campion's films tends to center upon women whose inarticulateness or sense of devalued self-worth is often painful to watch on the large screen. Campion, who has written the screenplays for her most acclaimed works, creates or otherwise develops heroines with an unusually non-Hollywood type of femininity. Campion's "women are haunted creatures at the mercy of their emotions," wrote Hal Hinson in the Washington Post. "Their blood runs with sadness, and it is out of this sexual despair that Campion forges her melancholy poetry."

Campion was born in Wellington, the capital of New Zealand, in 1954. Both parents were seriously involved in the performing...