Two Friends : Circumstances of a Historic Feminist Collaboration

Foregrounding the collaborative nature of film production, this chapter moves beyond an auteurist paradigm to consider the shared production process between Campion and two key creative agents: screenwriter Helen Garner and producer Jan Chapman. As one of Australia’s most respected authors, Garner’s influence on both Two Friends (1986) and Campion’s development as an artist has not been extensively studied. Nor has the influence of Chapman on Campion, who collaborated again on The Piano (1993), been documented. Zahos’ chapter documents how three of the Antipodes’ most important female creative practitioners met, collaborated on, and influenced one another after making Two Friends. In addition, the chapter explores the extensive distribution history of the film and considers the formal construction of Two Friends, arguing that even as it demonstrates Campion’s ability to tell emotionally resonant, female-centred stories through an unorthodox approach to style and narrative structure, the film remains an undervalued and understudied work in Jane Campion’s oeuvre. Two Friends should, Zahos contends, occupy a more prominent place in narratives of the development of Jane Campion as both artist and international “auteur.”