I tend to agree that THE PIANO is pretty much overrated, but I’ve been very much engaged with her other features. IN THE CUT and HOLY SMOKE have a negative to mixed reputation but they are really fascinating meditations on their respective genres, and ANGEL AT MY TABLE is a flat out terrific, and quietly inspiring depiction of the mind of an outsider writer. It’s right up Gillianren’s alley, I think.

Agreed. Bright Star and Paterson are the two poetry-based films that have struck me as brilliantly portraying the, as you say, rapture of poetry and the calm beauty of language. And I’ve seen a bunch of beat poet movies and movies about authors in general – they tend to focus on the writer as a figure, rather than the language that sustained them. I must revisit Bright Star one day. Haven’t seen it since it was in the cinema.

In general I haven’t seen a lot of Campion’s work, small as her library is. I had a lot of problems with The Piano and think it’s a very pretty, dumb film. And like Gillianren I watched a bunch of season 1 on Top of the Lake but didn’t really love it. I should at least catch up with Sweetie and In The Cut, which look interesting, at least. And An Angel At My Table is partly set in my recently adopted New Zealand hometown, so that’s essential viewing I haven’t got to yet.