image of person or book cover 7208440432253631487.jpg
form y separately published work icon Top of the Lake series - publisher   film/TV   detective   crime  
Alternative title: Top of the Lake : China Girl
Issue Details: First known date: 2013... 2013 Top of the Lake
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

Series one:

'A 12-year-old girl is found chest deep in the freezing waters of a South Island lake. She's five months pregnant and when asked who the father is she insists: "No one". Then she disappears. Detective Robin Griffin's obsessive search for Tui unravels both Robin and the compromised town of Laketop.' (Source: Screen Australia. Sighted: 13/6/2013)

Series two:

'Top of the Lake Season Two: China Girl is a crime mystery story concerning the unidentified body of an Asian girl that washes up on to Sydney's Bondi Beach. The case seems hopeless, until detective Robin Griffin discovers that China Girl didn't die alone.' (Source: Daily Life. Sighted: 24/3/2016)

Notes

  • Award-winning and individually published episodes are indexed on AustLit.

Includes

1.01
form y separately published work icon Top of the Lake : Episode One Jane Campion , Gerard Lee , Sydney London : See Saw Films , 2013 7224765 2013 single work film/TV

The opening episode of the series.

Sydney London : See Saw Films , 2013
2.04
form y separately published work icon Birthday Jane Campion , Gerard Lee , Australia : See Saw Films , 2017 13391721 2017 single work film/TV Australia : See Saw Films , 2017

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

    • Sydney, New South Wales,: London,
      c
      England,
      c
      c
      United Kingdom (UK),
      c
      Western Europe, Europe,
      :
      See Saw Films ,
      2013 .
      image of person or book cover 4711344085400603108.jpg
      Screen cap from Sundance Channel promotional trailer
      Extent: 7 x 60 min. episodes (series one); 6 x 60min. episodes (series two)p.

Works about this Work

Top of the Lake’s Emotional Landscape : Reparation at the Edge of the World Susannah Radstone , 2024 single work criticism
— Appears in: Screen Culture in the Global South : Cinema at the End of the World 2024;
‘But Do I Care? No, I’m Too Old to Care’: Authority, Unfuckability, and Creative Freedom in Jane Campion’s Authorship After the Age of Sixty Julia Gayley Erhart , 2019 single work criticism
— Appears in: Studies in Australasian Cinema , vol. 13 no. 2-3 2019; (p. 67-82)

'The twenty-first century has seen an increase in scholarly interest in the discursive construction of women film practitioners, yet much of this literature focusses on women at the younger- or middle-aged ends of the spectrum, leaving the positioning of older women directors unexamined. Taking Jane Campion as an important case study, this paper explores how Campion is depicted in critical discourses including journalistic responses from Cannes, comments by female industry peers, her self-construction in interviews, and via the television show Top of the Lake, with its unique focus on themes of women and aging. While there is consistency within each discourse in which Campion is situated, each emphasises different facets of Campion’s career. This article explores counter-discourses around aging as uttered by Campion and as apparent in Top of the Lake and provides evidence of an intensified biographical focus in critical commentary from this stage of Campion’s career. While not definitively attributable to Campion’s biological age, the critical recourse to biography may be enabled by the sheer longevity of Campion’s career and many decades in the public eye. Taken together, these constructions of ‘Campion’ are contradictory, however many succeed in putting pressure on hegemonic notions of gender and aging.' (Publication abstract)

Changing Accents : Place, Voice and Top of the Lake Tessa Dwyer , 2018 single work criticism
— Appears in: Studies in Australasian Cinema , vol. 12 no. 1 2018; (p. 14-28)

'This article examines the role that locality, cultural specificity and authentic voice play within current television industry shifts and transnational developments. Focussing on Top of the Lake, I explore its thematic and aesthetic preoccupation with place, voice and nation by spotlighting issues of accent and vocal in/authenticity, detailing the controversy sparked when US star Elisabeth Moss was cast as New Zealand native, detective Robin Griffin. The adopted Antipodean accent furnished by Moss creates a highly ambivalent foregrounding and re-negotiation of the national within the particularly transnational space of post-broadcast ‘quality’ television. Presenting a ‘sonic spectacle’ (Holliday, Christopher. 2015. “The Accented American: The New Voices of British Stardom on US Television.” Journal of British Cinema and Television 12 (1): 63–82), Moss’ wobbly accent makes audiences doubly aware of the effort being expended to cue regional specificity and locale. In the following discussion, Moss’ vocal crafting in Top of the Lake is linked to the increasing importance given to authentic place and on-location shooting within post-broadcast television, as a means of fostering emotional pull and deep levels of viewer engagement. In Top of the Lake, links between place and authenticity are further interrogated via its self-aware invocation of touristic imagery and desires – made all the more nuanced due to Campion's presence as auteur and New Zealand's role as media-tourism mecca.' (Publication abstract)

Misogyny Floats Steve Dow , 2017 single work essay
— Appears in: The Monthly Blog , August 2017;

'The second season of ‘Top of the Lake’ once again battles male sexual and psychological violence.'

Jane Campion’s Top of the Lake : China Girl Helen Razer , 2017 single work essay
— Appears in: The Saturday Paper , 12-18 August 2017;

'Jane Campion’s latest foray into television, while featuring admirable performances, sees the writer–director stray too far from what she does best. '

Little Girl Lost Graeme Blundell , 2013 single work review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 23-24 March 2013; (p. 26-27)

— Review of Top of the Lake Jane Campion , Gerard Lee , 2013 series - publisher film/TV
Deep End of the Water Melinda Houston , 2013 single work review
— Appears in: The Canberra Times , 24 March 2013; (p. 27)

— Review of Top of the Lake Jane Campion , Gerard Lee , 2013 series - publisher film/TV
Dark, Deep Lake Davis Guy , 2013 single work review
— Appears in: The Courier-Mail , 30-31 March 2013; (p. 18)

— Review of Top of the Lake Jane Campion , Gerard Lee , 2013 series - publisher film/TV
Notable Australian TV of 2013 Michelle Smith , 2013 single work review
— Appears in: The Conversation , 18 December 2013;

— Review of Upper Middle Bogan Robyn Butler , Wayne Hope , Tony Martin , Gary McCaffrie , Kirsty Fisher , Trent Roberts , Alix Beane , 2013 series - publisher film/TV ; Home and Away Sarah Walker , Margaret Wilson , Sam Meikle , Sandy Webster , Matt Anderson , Fiona Bozic , Dan Bennett , Sue Hore , Sean Nash , James Walker , Ray Harding , Bruce Hancock , Phil Lloyd , Jason Herbison , David Worthington , Alister Webb , Andrew Osborne , John Hanlon , Greg Haddrick , Greg Stevens , Fiona Kelly , Faith McKinnon , Alison Nisselle , Maureen Ann Moran , Sarah Duffy , Phil Saunders , Stephen Vagg , Ysabelle Dean , Bevan Lee , Kelly Lefever , Anthony Ellis , Mary Dagmar-Davies , Clare Atkins , Lily Taylor , Kevin Roberts , Chelsea Cassio , Lyn Ogilvy , Cameron Welsh , Anne Brooksbank , John Hugginson , Morgan Smith , Jennifer Mellet , Christopher Gist , Louise Crane , Trent Atkinson , Leigh McGrath , Kaneana May , Neil Luxmoore , Adam Dolman , Greg Millin , Cassandra Carter , Sally Webb , Mardi McConnochie , Felicity Packard , Sabour Bradley , Rick Held , Kit Oldfield , Alexa Wyatt , Edwina Searle , Josh Mapleston , Kate Bradley , Sharyn Rosenberg , Elizabeth Coleman , John Coulter , Anthony Morris , Alison Boadle , Carla Kettner , Boaz Stark , Lois Booton , Judith Colquhoun , Michael Joshua , Cath Roden , Lesley Lewis , Zokov Nyste , Katrina Foster , Lisa Williams , Lynette Jacob , Coral Drouyn , Meg Mappin , Mark Grzic , Christine McCourt , Tom Galbraith , Drew Proffitt , Graham Foreman , Craig Wilkins , Jenny Sharp , Chris Phillips , Daniel Widdowson , Elizabeth Packett , Vicki Englund , Alan Hardy , Fiona Wood , Jenny Lewis , Samuel Atwell , Scott Taylor , Galia Hardy , Holly Lyons , Barbara Bishop , Bradley Souber , Peter Dick , Luke Devenish , Nicky Amall , Vanessa Critchley , Brooke Wilson , David Allen , Michael Harvey , Denise Morgan , David William Boutland , Pru Colville , Ray Kolle , Les Knight , Mark Elder , Jennifer Smart , Jon Concannon , Ericka Dobbins , Jane Allen , Peter Mattessi , Alex Papps , Justine Gillmer , Stuart Page , Nick King , Serge Lazareff , Blake Ayshford , James Balian , Alan Bateman , Kirrilly Burton , Louise Crawford , Jane Eakin , Ina Haas , Glenda Hambly , Matthew Hile , Raymond Meiksa , Rob Menzies , David Mesman , Annette Moore , Andy Muir , Gabrielle Somers , Matthew Tonna , Jeff Truman , Emily Vann , Peter Neale , David O'Brien , Phil Sanders , Leon Saunders , Daniel Krige , Deborah Parsons , Rebecca Greensill , Fin Edquist , 1988 series - publisher film/TV ; Top of the Lake Jane Campion , Gerard Lee , 2013 series - publisher film/TV
The 10 Best Australian Films of 2013 Lynden Barber , 2013 single work review
— Appears in: The Guardian Australia , 18 December 2013;

— Review of Mystery Road Ivan Sen , 2013 single work film/TV ; 100 Bloody Acres Colin Cairnes , Cameron Cairnes , 2012 single work film/TV ; The Darkside Warwick Thornton , 2013 single work film/TV ; The Rocket Kim Mordaunt , 2012 single work film/TV ; The Great Gatsby Baz Luhrmann , Craig Pearce , 2013 single work film/TV ; Top of the Lake Jane Campion , Gerard Lee , 2013 series - publisher film/TV ; The Turning Tim Winton , 2013 selected work film/TV
'From a tale set entirely in Laos to a doco about TV news in Afghanistan, many of the year's top films aren't recognisably Australian. Lynden Barber rounds up the best of the year.'
Stars Align to Switch Executives on to New TV Programs Michael Idato , 2012 single work column
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 9 October 2012; (p. 4)
Campion Captures Audience with Lake Christine Westwood , 2013 single work column
— Appears in: The Australian , 23 January 2013; (p. 12)
Stay in Touch...with Australian Films in Germany Peter Munro , Jo Casamento , 2013 single work column
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 7 February 2013; (p. 20)
Jane Campion and Gerard Lee Dominic Rolfe , 2013 single work column
— Appears in: The (Sydney) Magazine , March no. 118 2013; (p. 25)
Mystery Lives on a Lonely Lake Stephanie Bunbury , 2013 single work column
— Appears in: The Age , 14 February 2013; (p. 14)
Last amended 2 Jul 2018 10:54:30
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