Jennifer Connelly and Alice Englert at the Sundance Film Festival for "Bad Behaviour". Photo / Getty Images
Jennifer Connelly and Alice Englert at the Sundance Film Festival for "Bad Behaviour". Photo / Getty Images
Alice Englert, daughter of New Zealand film royalty, director Jane Campion, presented her movie Bad Behaviour in the official competition at the Sydney Film Festival last weekend.
Campion’s movie work was also celebrated at the festival with a retrospective showing.
It was the first step in launching Englert’s movie to Australasian audiences, with producer Chelsea Winstanley there to offer support. Winstanley’s company, Ahi Films, will distribute on this side of the world.
The movie had its premiere at the Sundance Festival in Park City Utah in January and had mostly positive reviews.
Bad Behaviour is Englert’s feature debut, which she wrote, directed and acted in. US Oscar winner Jennifer Connolly and the UK’s Ben Whishaw both star in the film.
The 29-year-old, who was born in Sydney and lives in Bondi, has movies in her blood. Her father is Australian film-maker Colin Englert and Campion was pregnant with her daughter when she accepted her Oscar for The Piano in 1994.
Growing up, Englert divided her time between Sydney and the South Island and, with her parents travelling schedule, attended schools in Australia, New Zealand, New York City, Rome and London. She credits New Zealand for the arty, whimsical side of the family.
In a recent interview with the Sydney Morning Herald, Englert said she always felt homesick for New Zealand because her bestie lives here and she’s always been a bit more mountain-leaning than city-leaning.
“I was all over the place when Mum was shooting stuff. I would just film-brat to wherever she was.”
Alice Englert at Sundance in Park City, Utah. Photo / Getty Images
Bad Behaviour is based in the film industry and centres on the strained relationship between a narcissistic mother and her free-spirited daughter.
Englert downplays any comparisons between her relationship with Campion. She told the Sydney Morning Herald she understood people would bring up her mother for the rest of her life but her screenplay was fictional.
“My aim is not to make work about my actual life, because I want to have that feel kind of private. But I do want to make things that I have at least some intimate knowledge of, so I’m not just talking out of my arse, you know?”
Jane Campion, winner of the award for best director for The Power of the Dog, poses in the press room at the Oscars on Sunday, March 27, 2022. Photo / AP
Connolly plays Lucy, a former child actor looking for the meaning of life while navigating her relationship with daughter Dylan, a stuntwoman played by Englert.
The film centres around Lucy as she attends an enlightenment retreat hosted by guru Elon, played by Whishaw.
Several Kiwi actors co-star in the film, including Robbie Magasiva, Beulah Koale, Mel Odedra, Tom Sainsbury and singer Marlon Williams.
Campion also makes a cameo as a nurse, which Englert told the SMH was super cute, revealing her mum was nervous and kept her costume afterwards. Campion was returning the favour after Englert appeared in her mother’s short film The Water Diary when she was 12.
