SWEETIE
JANE CAMPION | AUSTRALIA | 1989 | 97 MIN | R | ENGLISH
It would be easy to mistake the opening act of Jane Campion’s debut film Sweetie for a product of the early aughts’ stilted and quirk-galore slew of indie comedies. Opening on the superstitious Kay (Karen Colston), Campion poignantly captures a lonely woman taking a tea leave reading to heart resulting in one of the more unique meet-cutes of cinema. But it’s the arrival of Kay’s raging tornado of a sister Dawn aka Sweetie (Geneviève Lemon) that sets the 1989 film on a deranged path to self discovery, repressed trauma, and disquieting revelations. Campion immediately shows her patented ability to take seemingly innocuous stories and slyly transform them into hauntingly beautiful and terrifying reckonings about the human experience. Sweetie may not have been everyone’s cup of tea on the Croisette, but it remains an important debut of a contemporary master of cinema.
Part of the Cannes I Get A Boo? limited series
Relive the thrill of Cannes’ legendary croisette over the years as we present our favorite film debuts and prize winners along the French Riviera that were initially met with jeers from the festival’s notoriously vocal audience.
Cast: Geneviève Lemon, Karen Colston, Tom Lycos, Jon Darling
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