An Angel at My Table
Overview
This sprawling, detailed film by Jane Campion (THE PIANO) tells the true story of Janet Frame, a painfully sensitive girl who managed to escape a dreary rural upbringing and eight years in a mental hospital to become New Zealand's premier poet. The film unfolds as a trilogy, with each section based on a different Frame autobiography. "To the Is-Land" chronicles her childhood and awkward teenage years. "An Angel at My Table" focuses on her time as a teacher and her horrifying mental institution experience. "The Envoy from Mirror City" finds Frame an emerging, critically lauded writer traveling on a grant in Europe and finding love for the first time. Kerry Fox, as the adult Frame, is astonishing. She transmits painfully self-aware shyness until it rubs off on the viewer. Campion expertly captures the details of Frame's time and place, creating a brutal, impersonal world by turns unremittingly dreary and starkly beautiful. Stunning, exhausting, brilliant, this acclaimed film debuted on New Zealand TV as a miniseries and was later edited for feature-length release internationally.
Awards:
Main Cast & Crew:
Jane Campion - Director
John Maynard - Director
K.J. Wilson
Kerry Fox
Karen Fergusson
Alexia Keogh
Iris Churn
K. J. Wilson
Glynis Angell
Ailene Herring
Alison Bruce
Alistair Douglas
Details
- Format: DVD
- Color Format: Color
- UPC: 715515016124
- Genre: DRAMA
- Rating: Not Rated
- Release Date: September 2005
Movie Reviews
Synopsis:
Jane Campion's second feature focuses on the stormy life of one of New Zealand's most celebrated authors, Janet Frame.
Notes:
Shown at the New York Film Festival and the Sydney Film Festival in 1990.
Reviews:
"...A triumph..." - 05/30/1991 Rolling Stone, p.79
"...A fine, rigorous adaptation....A very gentle film..." - 05/20/1991 New York Times, p.C15
"...[Campion's] trickiest and most delicate film..." -- Rating: B+ - 05/20/1994 Entertainment Weekly, pp.68-9
"...Touching....Beguiling..." - 11/01/1990 Film Comment, p.2-7
"...Low-key and naturalistic....The film is like reading a diary....A great compliment to Campion is that the movie never seems less than genuine..." - 05/07/1992 Los Angeles Times, p.F2
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