An Angel at My Table
An Angel at My Table
Directed by:
Jane CampionScreenplay:
Laura JonesCinematography:
Stuart DryburghComposer:
Don McGlashanCast:
Kerry Fox, Alexia Keogh, Karen Fergusson, Brenda Kendall, Willa O'Neill, Alison Bruce, Edith Campion, Martyn Sanderson, Kevin J. Wilson, Peter Needham (more)VOD (3)
Plots(1)
With An Angel at My Table, Academy Award–winning filmmaker Jane Campion brought to the screen the harrowing autobiography of Janet Frame, New Zealand’s most distinguished author. Three actors in turn take on the lead role (including Kerry Fox in a marvelous performance as the adult Frame), as the film describes a journey from an impoverished childhood marked by tragedy to a misdiagnosis of schizophrenia resulting in electroshock therapy and a narrowly escaped lobotomy to, finally, international literary fame. Unobtrusively capturing the beauty and power of the New Zealand landscape while maintaining the film’s focus on the figure at its center, Campion broke new ground for female filmmakers everywhere and earned a sweep of her country’s film awards, along with the Special Jury Prize at the Venice Film Festival. (Criterion)
(more)Reviews (2)
A beautiful and elegant film. The story is divided into three parts, the second of which, set mostly in a mental hospital, is truly gripping. I have some reservations with they other parts, they are tedious. The whole film could easily fit into two hours without the story suffering.
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Let's be honest and point out that modern New Zealand literature is not a very prominent topic in the Czech Republic. Janet Frame's books have not yet been translated, but that makes it all the more enjoyable to listen to her film biography. Jane Campion's finesse and refined taste take us through three chapters of her life, which has everything - anchoring in her family, growing up, the many missteps of the 20th century in a nutshell, and above it all, her faith in people. I'm very glad I wandered into the Kiwi Film Fest.
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