An Angel at My Table (1990)

User Rating:

7.4/10   

Director:

Jane Campion

Writers:

Janet Frame (autobiographies To the Is-Land, An Angel at My Table and The Envoy from Mirror City)
Laura Jones (writer)

Release Date:

20 September 1990 (Australia)

Genre:

Biography | Drama

Plot:

Janet Frame grows up in a poor family with lots of brothers and sisters. Already at an early age she is different than the other kids...

Plot Keywords:

Author | Based On Autobiography | Insanity | Skinny Dipping | Female Frontal Nudity

Awards:

13 wins

Cast

Kerry Fox	...	Janet Frame
Alexia Keogh	...	Janet Frame as adolescent
Karen Fergusson	...	Janet Frame as a child
Iris Churn	...	Mother
Jessie Mune	...	Baby Janet
Kevin J. Wilson	...	Father
Francesca Collins	...	Baby Jane
Melina Bernecker	...	Myrtle
Mark Morrison	...	Bruddie Frame as child
Katherine Murray-Cowper	...	Young Isabel
Mark Thomson	...	Billy Delaware
Brenda Kendall	...	Miss Botting
Paul Moffat	...	Dis McIvor
Blair Hutchison	...	Bully Boy
David McAuslan	...	Bully Boy

Runtime:

158 min

Country:

UK | Australia | New Zealand

Language:

English | Spanish

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Certification:

Netherlands:12 | South Korea:15 | UK:15 | Australia:M (DVD rating) | Argentina:13 | Australia:PG | Finland:K-10 | Germany:12 | Singapore:M18 | Sweden:11 | USA:R

Filming Locations:

Auckland, New Zealand

Company:

Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC)

Trivia:

Kerry Fox gained two stone for her role as Janet Frame. She managed this by drinking liters of Coca-Cola, eating packets of chocolate biscuits and going on the pill.

Movie Connections:

Featured in "Zomergasten: (#7.5)" (1994)

Soundtrack:

Somebody Stole My Gal

A fine profile of a courageous woman

Jane Campion's "An Angel at My Table" is a superbly competent biography of New Zealand writer Janet Frame. Frame, who suffered the death of two siblings as a child, was wrongly diagnosed as mentally ill. She was institutionalised for eight years and received over two hundred shock therapy treatments. Sharing like themes with "Sweetie" (Campion's first feature which I highly recommend), both films deal with emotionally driven misfits. I admire the fundamental narrative, as oppose to the oversentimental maudliness of a televised mini-series. In fact, the American theatrical version is an editing of such programming. I would have preferred seeing the longer version, because some parts are brief and required further explanation. Kerry Fox is magnificently capital as the older Frame. I did not realise, until an IMBD inquiry, she was the female lead in "Shallow Grave". Overall, Frame's life is compelling drama and Campion's portrayal is intelligent. 3 out of 4 stars.