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:

Electroconvulsive Therapy | Writer | Insanity | Female Frontal Nudity | Skinny Dipping

Awards:

15 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

Colour:

Colour

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

As much emotion as one heart can hold

"An Angel at My Table" (New Zealand, 1990): It's been three years since I've last watched this film. There is NO further reason to wonder if it should be in my "top" category. It is created by Jane Campion from the writer Janet Frame's autobiographies of her harrowing life. We join Janet during childhood, move through the teenage years and into adulthood, as she struggles for a place - ANY place - in the world...but deep down, writing is her one reliable love. Three actresses were needed for the role of Janet, and all do wonderful jobs, especially depicting someone who always feels on the outside, and longs to be included. Jane Campion, one of my favorite film makers, presents a powerful, subdued, and melancholy work of Art. It is not an amazing film due to every camera shot or the quality of sound recording… THIS work is great for its acting, and its story telling. It has as much emotion as one heart can hold for 157 minutes.