An Angel at My Table [Criterion Collection] [Blu-ray]

Overview

New Zealand poet Janet Frame is the subject of Jane Campion's biographical drama, which presents a poetically evocative look at the authoress' turbulent life. The film begins with a look at Frame's childhood, showing her as a bright but odd-looking, emotionally fragile young girl with a knack for writing. Frame faces great difficulty in adapting to the conventional rural life around her, and her social awkwardness only worsens as she grows older. After she fails in her attempt to become a schoolteacher due to an intense panic attack, she is subject to a psychiatric evaluation and shamefully misdiagnosed as a schizophrenic. Frame is subsequently committed to a mental institution, where she suffers years of unnecessary shock treatments and other horrors. Her salvation comes through her writings, however, which attract the attention of a renowned author who arranges her release. While the nightmare of Frame's institutionalization is presented with great sensitivity and power, Campion and screenwriter Laura Jones, to their credit, refuse to simplify her story to this one pivotal event. Instead, they pay equal attention to Frame's subsequent life, as she slowly adjusts life in the outside world, experiencing literary success and her first romance. Expressive visuals add immeasurably to the total effect, while Kerry Fox's superb performance creates a truly affecting portrait of Frame. Impressively, the film was originally made as a mini-series for New Zealand television, and slightly reedited for a later theatrical release.

Product Details

Release Date:	08/06/2019
UPC:	0715515233118
Original Release:	1990
Rating:	R
Source:	Criterion Collection
Region Code:	A
Presentation:	[Wide Screen]
Sound:	[Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround]
Language:	English
Time:	2:38:00
Sales rank:	16,621

Special Features

High-definition digital restoration, supervised by director of photography Stuart Dryburgh and approved by director Jane Campion, with 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack; Audio commentary from 2005 featuring Campion, Dryburgh, and actor Kerry Fox; Short documentary from 2002 about the making of the film; Six deleted scenes; Audio interview with author Janet Frame from 1983; Trailer; Stills gallery

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Kerry Fox	Janet Frame
Alexia Keogh	Young Janet
Karen Fergusson	Teenage Janet
Iris Churn	Mum
K.J. Wilson	Dad,Actor
Melina Bernecker	Myrtle
Glynis Angell	Isabel
Sarah Smuts-Kennedy	June
Katherine Murray-Cowper	Isabel Frame (as a child)
Samantha Townsley	Isabel Frame (as a teenager)
Susan McGregor	June Frame (as a teenager)
Sarah Llewellyn	June Frame (as a child)
Andrew Binns	Buddie Frame
Christopher Lawrence	Buddie Frame (as a teenager)
Mark Morrison	Buddie Frame (as a child)
Carla Hedgeman	Poppy (as a child)
Caroline Somerville	Poppy (as a teenager)
Colin McColl	John Forrest
Martyn Sanderson	Frank Sargeson
Jessica Wilcox	Kay Stead
Mark Clare	Karl Stead
Michael Harry	Colin
William Brandt	Bernard
Peter Dennett	Mark Goulden
David McKenzie	Alan Sillitoe
Eleanor Wragge	Ruth Sillitoe
Jessie Mune	Janet Frame (as a baby)
Francesca Collins	June Frame (as a baby)
Mark Thomson	Billy Delaware
Brenda Kendall	Miss Botting
Paul Moffat	Dis McIvor
Blair Hutchinson	Bully Boy
David McAuslan	Bully Boy
Ailene Herring	Teacher
Faye Flegg	Doctor,Doctor
Melissa Dawson	Nora Bone
Angela Ford	Turning Girl
Lorna Storm	Groovy Girl
Timothy Bartlett	Gussy Dymock
Richard Mills	Talent Scout,Katherine
Sassy Acorn	Audition Girl
Tony Creamer	Audition Boy
Hamish McFarlane	Avril Luxton
Geoff Barlow	Headmaster
Edith Campion	Miss Lyndsay
Fiona Kay	Marguerite
Eileen Clark	Neighbor,Mary
Margaret Gordon	Neighbor
Lillian Enting	Miss Crowe
Fiona Brown	Shirley
Maureen Duffy	Miss Farnie
Karla Smith	Sybil,Edwin Mather
Willa O'Neill	Edith
Fritha Stalker	Bridget
Melanie Reid	Melanie
Natasha Gray	Lesley
Kelly Stewart	Rose,Nurse Maitland
Virginia Brocklehurst	Rona
Natalie Ellis	Aunt Isy
Eddie Hegan	Uncle George
Erin Dorricott	Eunice
Doreen Donnell	Teacher
Alistair Douglas	Headmaster
Rod Collison	Mr. Niles
Harry Lavington	Head of Psychology
Cushla Ashton	Borstal Girl
Jacqueline O'Rourke	Borstal Girl
Joy Trow	Woman on Platform
June Shane	Neighbour
Annabel Lomas	Mrs. Chandler
Anne Cockroft	Nurse
Elizabeth McRae	Nurse
David Stott	Doctor
Jim Rawdon	Wilson
Peter Brunt	Dr. Burt
Celia Nicholson	Piona
Peter Needham	Dr. Palmer
Joshua Cole	June and Wilson's Child
Ian Hendl	June and Wilson's Child
Helene Anderson	Norwegian Woman
Joan Foster	Hotel Manageress
David Letch	Patrick
Rob Jayne	Ben
Sharon Marsden	Katie
Collette Cooper	Bohemian,Actor
Paul Norell	Bohemian
Julia Calvo	Spanish Woman on Train
Maria Matias	Spanish Woman
Carlos Martinez	Spanish Official
Maria Mercedes Maroto	Catalina
Paula Sanchez	Francesca,Francesca
Alison Bruce	Dora
Gwyneth Hughes	Matron
Gerald Bryan	Dr. Cawley
Billy Atkinson	Mrs. Morgan
Caroline Flint	Mrs. Goulden
Rachel Hernandez	Columba
Patrick Griffiths	Reporter
Donnell Doreen	Teacher
Sarah Llewwllyn	June Frame - as a Child
Dave Scott	Doctor
Gwyneth Hugues	Matron
Elizabeth MacRae	Nurse
Faith Martin	Actor
Diana Rowan	Actor
Don McGlashan	Composer

Technical Credits

Laura Jones

Jane Campion	Director
Bridget Ikin	Producer
Grant Major	Producer
Laura Jones	Screenwriter
John Dennison	Sound/Sound Designer
Tony Vaccher	Sound/Sound Designer

Editorial Reviews

Originally commissioned as a miniseries for New Zealand television, Jane Campion's sophomore directorial effort is a sprawling adaptation of the memoirs of author and poet Janet Frame, whose budding talents as a young writer were squelched by her community's -- and at times, even her own -- conviction that she be institutionalized. The film is as much a chronicle of one woman's changing emotional landscape as it is an expose of the sordid conditions of the country's psychiatric hospitals of the '50s, where Frame was left to languish until her writings attracted the attention of influential writers and editors. The perennially reliable character actress Kerry Fox established herself in the role of the adult Frame, and she delivers delicate, carefully modulated emotion beneath Frame's trademark shock of red hair. The film bears more than a passing resemblance to later "institutionalized genius" pictures (most notably 1996's Shine), but Campion avoids letting her subject become a mere martyr; there are incidents in which Frame exercises bad judgement, and her transition to the life of a successful, independent woman is a shaky, apprehensive one. As is common in Campion's films, however, the director seems to be outlining a larger social pathology behind her heroine's insecurity and pathos. Angel marked the beginning of the director's kinetic, distinctive work with cinematographer Stuart Dryburgh, who would also shoot The Piano and Portrait of a Lady.

All Movie Guide - Michael Hastings