Jennifer Kent is an Australian director, screenwriter, and former actress. She is best known for writing and directing the psychological horror film ''
The Babadook'' (2014). Her second film, ''
The Nightingale'' (2018), premiered at the
75th Venice International Film Festival and was nominated for the
Golden Lion
The Golden Lion () is the highest prize given to a film at the Venice Film Festival. The prize was introduced in 1949 by the organizing committee and is regarded as one of the film industry's most prestigious and distinguished prizes. In 1970, a ...
.
Early life and education
Jennifer Kent was born in
Brisbane
Brisbane ( ; ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and largest city of the States and territories of Australia, state of Queensland and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia, with a ...
,
Queensland
Queensland ( , commonly abbreviated as Qld) is a States and territories of Australia, state in northeastern Australia, and is the second-largest and third-most populous state in Australia. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Austr ...
. She says that she put on her first play when she was seven and also wrote stories. In her late teens, she chose acting as she "wasn't really aware at that stage that women could direct films".
She graduated in 1991 from the
National Institute of Dramatic Art
The National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA) is an Australian educational institution for the performing arts based in Sydney, New South Wales. Founded in 1958, it offers bachelor's, master's and vocational degrees in subjects including acting ...
(NIDA) in Performing Arts (Acting).
Career
Acting
Kent began her career as an actress, working primarily in television. She was a main cast member of ''
Murder Call'', from creator
Hal McElroy, playing Constable, Dee Suzeraine, in all 31 episodes of the series. She also appeared in several episodes of other Australian TV series such as ''
All Saints'', ''
Police Rescue
''Police Rescue'' is an Australian television series which originally aired on ABC TV (Australian TV channel), ABC TV between 1989 and 1996. It was produced by Australian Broadcasting Corporation, ABC and Southern Star Entertainment, Southern ...
'' and ''
Above the Law''. Kent also had a small role in ''
Babe: Pig in the City'' and ''
The New Adventures of Black Beauty''. She has also been an acting teacher for 13 years at major institutions such as NIDA and the
Australian Film Television and Radio School
The Australian Film Television and Radio School (AFTRS), formerly Australian Film and Television School, is Australia's national screen arts and broadcast school. Opened to students in 1973 as Film and Television School (FTS), after accredita ...
(AFTRS).
Directing
After losing interest in acting, Kent was inspired after seeing ''
Dancer in the Dark
''Dancer in the Dark'' is a 2000 musical psychological tragedy film written and directed by Lars von Trier. It stars Icelandic musician Björk as a factory worker who suffers from a degenerative eye condition and is saving for an operation to p ...
'' to pursue a career as a filmmaker. She wrote to the director
Lars von Trier
Lars von Trier (né Trier; born 30 April 1956) is a Danish film director and screenwriter.
Beginning in the late-1960s as a child actor working on Danish television series ''Secret Summer'', von Trier's career has spanned more than five decad ...
, asking to study under him and explaining that she found the idea of
film school
A film school is an educational institution dedicated to teaching aspects of filmmaking, including such subjects as film production, film theory, digital media production, and screenwriting. Film history courses and hands-on technical training are ...
repellent.
In 2002
von Trier allowed her to assist him as part of a directing attachment on the set of his film ''
Dogville
''Dogville'' is a 2003 experimental drama film written and directed by Lars von Trier. It features an ensemble cast led by Nicole Kidman, Lauren Bacall, Paul Bettany, Chloë Sevigny, Stellan Skarsgård, Udo Kier, Ben Gazzara, Patricia Clarks ...
'' (2003) starring Nicole Kidman.
In 2006 Kent directed an episode of ''
Two Twisted'', an Australian series following in the tradition of ''
The Twilight Zone
''The Twilight Zone'' is an American media franchise based on the anthology series, anthology television series created by Rod Serling in which characters find themselves dealing with often disturbing or unusual events, an experience described ...
''.
In 2005 Kent directed her short film ''Monster'', which was screened at over 50 festivals around the world, including
Telluride,
Montreal World, and
Slamdance film festivals,
SXSW
South by Southwest (SXSW) is an annual conglomeration of parallel film, interactive media, and music festivals and Convention (meeting), conferences organized jointly that take place in mid-March in Austin, Texas. It began in 1987 and has conti ...
, and
Aspen Shortsfest.
In 2014 she adapted her short into a feature-length film ''
The Babadook'' starring
Essie Davis
Esther "Essie" Davis is an Australian actress and singer, best known for her roles as Phryne Fisher in '' Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries'' and its film adaptation, '' Miss Fisher & the Crypt of Tears'', and as Amelia Vanek in '' The Babadook''. ...
whom Kent had known through drama school. The film tells the story of a single mother played by Davis who must confront a sinister presence in her home while dealing with the emotional fallout of her husband's death. Kent Explains "
hewas always quite fascinated by people who could suppress really dark, deep, painful experiences and
hewanted to explore the idea that perhaps pushing down on those terrible experiences is harder than facing them". ''The Babadook'' premiered at the
2014 Sundance Film Festival
The 2014 Sundance Film Festival took place from January 16, 2014 until January 26, 2014 in Park City, Utah, United States, with screenings in Salt Lake City, Utah, Salt Lake City, Ogden, Utah, Ogden, and Sundance Resort in Utah. The festival opene ...
, and was quickly picked up for distribution in the U.S. by
IFC Films
Independent Film Company (formerly IFC Films) is an American film production and distribution company based in New York City, New York. It is an offshoot of IFC (U.S. TV channel), IFC, owned by AMC Networks.
It mainly distributes independent fil ...
. Kent did five drafts of the feature script, received most of her funding from the
South Australian Film Corporation, then conducted a
Kickstarter
Kickstarter, PBC is an American Benefit corporation, public benefit corporation based in Brooklyn, New York City, that maintains a global crowdfunding platform focused on creativity. The company's stated mission is to "help bring creative project ...
campaign to help raise US$30,000 to pay for set construction.
''The Babadook'' received widespread critical acclaim, and doubled its budget with $4.9 million in the worldwide box office. ''The Babadook'' script won the Betty Roland Prize for Scriptwriting at the 2015
New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards
The New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards, also known as the NSW Premier's Literary Awards, were first awarded in 1979. They are among the richest literary awards in Australia. Notable prizes include the Christina Stead Prize for Fiction, th ...
.
Kent has been vocal in the press about the lack of female directors in horror cinema.
"It will shift, as the world shifts. Women do love watching scary films. It's been proven, and they’ve done all the tests. The demographics are half men, and half women. And we know fear. It's not like we can't explore the subject."
Kent met with executives at
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (WBEI), commonly known as Warner Bros. (WB), is an American filmed entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California and the main namesake subsidiary of Warner Bro ...
in late 2014 to talk about possibly directing the
Wonder Woman
Wonder Woman is a superheroine who appears in American comic books published by DC Comics. The character first appeared in ''All Star Comics'' Introducing Wonder Woman, #8, published October 21, 1941, with her first feature in ''Sensation Comic ...
film, a job which eventually went to
Patty Jenkins
Patricia Lea Jenkins (born July 24, 1971) is an American film director, screenwriter, and producer. She has directed the feature films '' Monster'' (2003), ''Wonder Woman'' (2017), and '' Wonder Woman 1984'' (2020).
For the film ''Monster'', sh ...
.
''The Babadook'' (2014)
Her first feature-length film, ''
The Babadook'', is a supernatural horror film written and directed by Kent. In late 2014, Kent announced that, due to popular demand, a limited edition of the ''Mister Babadook''
pop-up book
A pop-up book is any book with three-dimensional space, three-dimensional pages, often with elements that ''pop up'' as a page is turned. The terminology serves as an umbrella term for movable book, pop-ups, tunnel books, transformations, volvel ...
featured in her film ''The Babadook'' would be published in 2015. Kent wrote the book in collaboration with illustrator Alex Juhasz, who had created the prop book used in the film. The book sold out its run of 6,200 copies.
''The Nightingale'' (2018)
Her second film, ''
The Nightingale'', deals with murder and revenge in 1825 Tasmania. On
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...
, the film garnered an approval rating of 86%, based on 234 reviews.
Future projects
When asked whether she would be doing a sequel to ''The Babadook'', Kent said that she "will never allow any sequel to be made, because it's not that kind of film."
One of her scripts, ''Grace'', won the Prix Du Scenario for unproduced scripts at the
Cinéma des Antipodes festival at
Saint Tropez,
which presents films from Australia and New Zealand, but Kent said in October 2014, "The story of ''Grace'' was very much what I ended up making with ''
The Babadook''."
She told ''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...
'' in May 2014 that
HBO
Home Box Office (HBO) is an American pay television service, which is the flagship property of namesake parent-subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is based a ...
was courting her for a TV series.
In June 2015, it was reported that the nonfiction book ''Alice + Freda Forever'' was being adapted into a film that Kent would write and direct. The book tells the real-life story of
Alice Mitchell and her lover Freda Ward whom she killed in 1892. The film's producer is Sarah Schechter.
Film techniques
''The Babadook'' strays from the typical approach to the genre of horror by using a mix of psychological drama and horror and focusing on the imagination of children slowly turning into a reality. Kent does this by using horror elements in the layout and camerawork.
The film uses
German expressionist techniques; many of the scenes are disorienting and dark.
Kent uses different approaches to the horror genre from classic horror film directors. As ''
The Babadook'' progresses, for example, the Victorian-style house which is the main set mimics the mother's mental state.
Kent brought together a team of people she felt could bring her idea to the screen. Radek Ladczuk was the film's cinematographer and helped bring her ideas to life. Kent was influenced by old movies, and initially wanted to film the movie in black and white.
She used many different techniques to embody a terrifying set, using colours like "muted grey-and-blue and hints of red as the story became more suspenseful".
Ladczuk states that there were five aspects to this film, all shown with different camera movements. The film is split into five different emotions: anxiety, fear, terror, possession, and courage.
By shooting with a 32mm lens they were able to capture the mother's feelings and later changed to a 14mm lens. They also used a
Steadicam
Steadicam is a brand of camera stabilizer mounts for motion picture cameras invented by Garrett Brown and introduced in 1975 by Cinema Products Corporation. The Steadicam brand was acquired by Tiffen in 2000. It was designed to isolate the ...
and static camera
to help develop the film's layers. Fast and slow motion effects were also added throughout the film, as well as
stop motion
Stop-motion (also known as stop frame animation) is an animated filmmaking and special effects technique in which objects are physically manipulated in small increments between individually photographed frames so that they will appear to exh ...
, and they even mounted a camera vertically on the wall to help with certain shots.
A lot of the shots were done in camera because Kent felt that it made the film scarier and more realistic than adding stuff in with
CGI later.
''
The Babadook'' is presented from the mother's perspective; the struggle of motherhood is a major component of the film's story. According to Clarke, many scenes in the film are relatable because they show the everyday struggles of mothers. Clarke argues that Kent touches on not only parenting but dealing with gossipy friends and sexuality, as shown in a scene where the mother is masturbating. These everyday themes are interspersed with moments of terror and suspense; techniques of classic horror. The film ends with the female lead taming the beast by defending her child, and keeping it in the basement.
Filmography
Film
Acting roles
Other credits
Television
Acting roles
Awards
References
External links
*
'Monster' short film 'The Babadook'Jennifer KentJennifer Kent: A Director to Watch
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kent, Jennifer
Australian film directors
Australian women film directors
Australian women screenwriters
Australian horror film directors
Living people
20th-century Australian actresses
21st-century Australian actresses
People from Brisbane
Australian film actresses
Australian television actresses
National Institute of Dramatic Art alumni
Year of birth missing (living people)