Sweetie [Criterion Collection] [Blu-ray]

Director: Jane Campion Jane Campion

Overview

New Zealand-born filmmaker Jane Campion directs the darkly humorous family drama Sweetie. Thin and mousy Kay (Karen Colson) works in a factory and lives a dreary existence with her well-meaning boyfriend, Louis (Tom Lycos). One day, her sister Dawn (Genevieve Lemon) arrives with her so-called manager, Bob (Michael Lake). Nicknamed Sweetie, Dawn is everything Kay is not: boisterous, impulsive, and overweight. Kay is consumed with uptight phobias, while Dawn hangs on to her unrealistic childhood dreams of show business. Meanwhile, their parents, Gordon (Jon Darling) and Flo (Dorothy Barry), are involved in a strange separation. Kay, Louis, and Gordon trick Dawn so they can visit Flo at a ranch in the Australian outback. Everyone gets together back at the family home where Dawn pulls an immature stunt, exposing the psychological realities of the situation.

Product Details

Release Date:	04/19/2011
UPC:	0715515069519
Original Release:	1989
Rating:	R
Source:	Criterion Collection
Region Code:	A
Presentation:	[Wide Screen]
Language:	English
Time:	1:39:00
Sales rank:	15,155

Special Features

Audio commentary featuring Campion, Bongers, and screenwriter Gerard Lee; Making "Sweetie," a video conversation between stars Genevieve Lemon and Karen Colston; Campion's early short films An Exclusive in Discipline: Peel, Passionless Moments, and A Girl's Own Story; Jane Campion: The Film School Years, a 1989 conversation between Campion and critic Peter Thompson; Behind-the-scenes photos and production stills; Original theatrical trailer

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Geneviève Lemon	Dawn,Actor
Karen Colston	Kay
Tom Lycos	Louis
Jon Darling	Gordon
Dorothy Barry	Flo
Michael Lake	Bob
Andre Pataczek	Clayton
Jean Hadgraft	Mrs. Schneller
Paul Livingston	Teddy Schneller
Louise Fox	Cheryl
Ann Merchant	Cheryl
Robyn Frank	Ruth
Bronwyn Morgan	Sue
Sean Fennell	Boy Clerk
Sean Callinan	Simboo
Norm Galton	Notary
Charles Abbott	Meditation Teacher
Diana Armer	Melony
Barbara Middleton	Clayton's Mum
Emma Fowler	Little Sweetie
Irene Curtis	Mandy
Ken Porter	Lead Jakaroo
Warren Hensley	Man Handshaker
Doug Ramsey	Sweetie's Funeral Attendee
Kristoffer Pershouse	Boy in Tree
Norman Phillips	Nosy Neighbor
John Negroponte	Actor
Gerard Lee	Lead Jackaroo
Shirley Sheppard	Nosy Neighbor
Ben Cochrane	Boy in Tree
Larry Brand	Sweetie's Funeral
Cedric McLaughlan	Sweetie's Funeral
Bruce Currie	Man with Saw
Martin Armiger	Composer

Technical Credits

Jane Campion

Gerard Lee

Jane Campion	Director,Screenwriter,Casting
Gerard Lee	Screenwriter
Bernie Ledger	Stunts
John Maynard	Producer

Editorial Reviews

Writer/director Jane Campion garnered worldwide attention at the 1989 Cannes Film Festival with her first full-length feature, the alternately whimsical and disturbing Sweetie. This color-saturated tale of two sisters -- the reserved, deliberate Kay (Karen Colston) and the uninhibited, childlike Sweetie (Genevieve Lemon) -- divided critics on its release, as it established many of the motifs that Campion would explore in her subsequent successes, An Angel at My Table and The Piano. When the film begins, Kay's sad-sack demeanor and passive behavior appear to be dissolving as she starts to take control of her life -- that is, until the younger Sweetie turns up on her doorstep. Lemon's performance is something to behold: She's a pale, fleshy Freudian nightmare in heavy eye makeup, prone to histrionics and sly turns of seduction. Without resorting to textbook feminist indictments of male culture, the film charts the havoc a husband's indifference and a father's misguided attention can play on the emotional development of two very different women. Campion would later use Lemon in The Piano and Holy Smoke.

All Movie Guide - Michael Hastings