Sweetie

Theatrical Release Date: 1990 01 19 (USA)

UPC: 715515069519

Studio: Criterion

MPAA Rating: R   Contains:[Adult Situations, Not For Children, Profanity, Sexual Situations]

Summary: 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. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, Rovi

Category: Comedy Drama

Awards: Best Foreign Film – Independent Spirit Awards

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

Sweetie

Format: Blu-ray

Release Date: 04/19/2011

Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 Theatre Wide-Screen

Audio: DHMA null

Runtime: 99 Minutes

Sides: 1

Number of Discs: 1

Language(s) English

Region: Blu-ray region A (North America, Central America, South America, Japan, Taiwan, North Korea, South Korea, Hong Kong, Southeast Asia)

Michael Hastings

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. ~ Michael Hastings, Rovi

Cast and Crew: Jean Hadgraft  Actor 
Emma Fowler  Actor 
Doug Ramsey  Actor 
Louise Fox  Actor 
Bronwyn Morgan  Actor 
Bruce Currie  Actor 
Norman Phillips  Actor 
Larry Brand  Actor 
Warren Hensley  Actor 
Diana Armer  Actor 
Barbara Middleton  Actor 
Charles Abbott  Actor 
Norm Galton  Actor 
Shirley Sheppard  Actor 
Robyn Frank  Actor 
John Negroponte  Actor 
Irene Curtis  Actor 
Ken Porter  Actor 
Sean Fennell  Actor 
Ann Merchant  Actor 
Ben Cochrane  Actor 
Kristoffer Pershouse  Actor 
Sean Callinan  Actor 
Paul Livingston  Actor 
Gerard Lee  Actor 
Cedric McLaughlan  Actor 
Martin Armiger  Composer (Music Score) 
Jane Campion  Director 
Jane Campion  Screenwriter 
Gerard Lee  Screenwriter 
John Maynard  Producer 
Genevieve Lemon  Actor 
Karen Colston  Actor 
Tom Lycos  Actor 
Jon Darling  Actor 
Dorothy Barry  Actor 
Michael Lake  Actor 
Andre Pataczek  Actor 

Country: Australia