Alice in wonderland
New Zealand Listener|November 11 - 17, 2023
Directing debut for Campion daughter shows initial promise then unravels.
Russell Baillie
Alice in wonderland

BAD BEHAVIOUR

Directed by Alice Englert

In the recent documentary Jane Campion, The Cinema Woman, there's a nice moment from yet another film festival press conference when the directing Dame nods towards her then teenage daughter in the wings and says: "Alice is my best movie."

Australian-born Alice Englert, whose father Colin is also a director, has grown up in the arthouse. An actor since adolescence, she's established herself as an edgy character actor in films like Ginger and Rosa, then taken that indie profile to a regular presence on prestige television dramas, including her mother's Top of the Lake: China Girl.

Now, after directing a couple of short films, she has written and delivered her debut feature, Bad Behaviour, an off-kilter, initially darkly funny mother-daughter story with autobiographical overtones.

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