Jane Campion has admitted she couldn’t enjoy any of the success her movie ‘The Piano’ achieved because it coincided with the death of her baby son.
The New Zealand filmmaker became the first, and so far the only, female director to win the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival with her 1993 period drama film about a mute piano player, which also won three Oscars.
‘The Piano’ was made and edited whilst Campion was pregnant with her first child by her now ex-husband Colin Englert and shortly after she attended the premiere for her film in Cannes she gave birth but tragically her tot Jasper only lived for 11 days.
Recalling the saddest period of her life and the effect it had on her, Campion said: "I had to fly back before I couldn’t fly. I was there for the screening but it wasn’t really a good time because my blood pressure was shooting up, with interviews and managing the pregnancy. So I was back in Sydney and I heard that we’d won, which was amazing. Then really shortly after I found out my baby was seriously in trouble – born alive, and died at 11 days. That was the worst time of my life. I really didn’t enjoy any of the success. It almost felt like ‘at the cost of’, weirdly. For that time, it felt like that. I did six months of suffering and grieving intensely."
Campion, 64, then went on to get pregnant with her daughter Alice Englert – who is now 23 and is making a name for herself as an actress with a role in TV series ‘Top of the Lake’, created by her mother, and several film parts.
Campion admits there is rarely a day that goes by when she doesn’t think about Jasper, but she believes that loss has had a positive effect on her life and career.
Speaking to The Guardian newspaper, she said: "I am incredibly grateful for having that whole experience of that baby that did not live, because it put me in touch with that kind of suffering. It just changed my perspective forever. When you’ve had a death like that you become part of a club you never leave, and because of the love you feel for them, you never resent it."
Jane Campion: Loss of my son changed my life and career
