Jane Campion has spoken out against superhero films calling them “noisy” and “ridiculous”.
The Oscar-winning writer-director of The Piano was asked about her thoughts on the genre at a recent screening of her new awards-tipped Netflix drama The Power of the Dog.
“I hate them,” she said to Variety. “I actually hate them”
When asked if she would ever consider making the leap, she gave a firm response. “I think it’s safe to say that I will never do that,” she said. “They’re so noisy and like ridiculous. Sometimes you get a good giggle, but I don’t know what the thing is with the capes, a grown man in tights. I feel like it must come from pantomime.”
In September, Campion told the Hollywood Reporter that she would never do one because she doesn’t need the money. “I don’t see so many people going backwards into smaller budgets once they go out and do a great big Marvel movie,” she added. “I think it’s hard to go back into personal stories.”
Campion is the latest acclaimed director to criticise superhero films, following on Martin Scorsese, who compared them to “theme parks” in 2019, and Ridley Scott, who called them “fucking boring as shit” earlier this month. Both Marvel and DC have tried to bring over more auteurs, most recently Chloé Zhao, the Oscar-winning Nomadland director who made this month’s Eternals. But the film has become the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s worst reviewed offering to date.
The Power of the Dog is the first film from Campion since 2009’s Bright Star and is one of the frontrunners for next year’s best picture Oscar. It stars Benedict Cumberbatch as a sexually repressed rancher who develops a strange fascination with an effete young man. The Guardian’s Peter Bradshaw gave it five stars and called it one of Campion’s best.