Customer Reviews

An Angel at My Table [Region 2]

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4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
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1 star:		(1)

 

 

Based on the autobiographies of Janet Frame. And from director Jane Campion (The Piano)

This is a wonderful portrait of the New Zealand author. Who was misdiagnosed as schizophrenic, she endured numerous treaments of electric shock therapy (over 200!) Spent eight traumatic years in a mental institution. And came very close to having a lobotomy!

It would be years before she would find the diagnosis of schizophrenia was wrong.

This movie examines Janet's early life to adulthood. A very hard childhood hampered by poverty. And many tragedies. Her older sister, Myrtle, drowned when Janet was young. One of her other sisters Isabel died (also by drowning!) when Janet was in college. And her older brother suffered from epilesy. In a time when there was not more they could do about it. He often had seizures, made him a vulnerable target for bullies at school, and it left him unfit for most work. And Janet herself suffered with terribly painful decaying teeth, she had to have ALL of them pulled at a very young age.

After her thankful release from the hospital she then went on a trip, first to England then to Spain. Where she met a young American poet, who she would formed her first relationship with.

It is a long film, but don't let that discourage you. There is never a dull moment. It's a facinating story. It's visually beautiful. Filled with tragedy but also funny and wonderfully touching moments. And the performances are fabulous. About an incredible woman who wasn't schizophrenic...just "different"

It's always remained one of my favorite films, the kind I can watch over and over.

As a writer I can clearly understand the world Janet Frame lived in growing up. I myself was sent to a shrink for being a writer as well as for being shy and introverted. However, this is an outstanding drama of human proportions. It echoes forthcoming images of what Campion did with "The Piano" three years after she made this film. The life of Janet Frame is beautifully realized from her youthful days with a lower-class family, suffering heartbreak, loss, labeled as insane, and finding ultimate redemption in her talent as a writer. The film explores both her personal and social conflicts as well as with the men who changed her life and stirred her emotions. Very few writers and directors can ever tell a story so vividly real and powerful as Campion and Laura Jones have done here. It should offer hope and strength to those who have great dreams of success in this life yet feel mowed down by overnight sensations and those who threaten to tear down their goals. The music score adds to the emotion this film evokes. The world of a writer was never more stunningly pictured than how it is here. I highly recommend this film, especially to my fellow writers out there in this world. It is a gem of a film from one of the most gifted writers and directors our movie industry has ever known.

A unique and original work from a gifted film artist. It tells the story of Janet Frame, one of New Zealand's most important writers. The film follows Janet's life from the time she's a small girl in school, trying to buy friends with candy, to the adult, painfully shy introvert played by Kerry Fox. It is an insightful look at the life of a woman who finally learns to appreciate herself. Remarkable.

This review is for the Criterion Collection DVD edition of the film.

"An Angel at My Table" is a film based on the autobiographies of the famous New Zealand writer, Janet Frame. It begins with her as a toddler and moves to her in elementary school, as a teenager, and her adulthood.

It is a nice movie and has great scenes of New Zealand. The film has good acting in it and is well photographed.

There are some good bonus features too.

Audio commentary by director Jane Campion, actress Kerry Fox, and cinematographer, Stuart Dryburgh, Six deleted scenes, a theatrical trailer a documentary on the film's production, a stills gallery, and an audio interview with Janet Frame.

This is a must see for those interested in Janet Frame.

Writers, take note: Here is a very, very rare example of the creative spirit--and the creative process--captured on film. This story of the formative years of Janet Frame, New Zealand's most celebrated poet and novelist, is fascinating from start to finish.

Director Jane Campion's great achievement (aided immeasurably by three marvelous actresses playing Janet Frame at various ages) is to bring to a wide audience a sense of what it is like to be a creative artist. Watch Janet throughout her odd, harrowing, uplifting early years, and you will see the evolution of a true genius, a human sponge who soaks up all her experiences (good and bad) and converts them into gorgeous words. Rarely has a film been able to illustrate this so convincingly.

I recommend this film to anyone interested in the nature of genius. But for writers, in particular, it is required viewing.

Not stunning as in beautiful. . . stunning as in feeling like it's hard to breathe; as in the almost painful shock of watching the tragedies and the miracles spill over one another. Picking up the video was a happy accident. I had never heard of Janet Frame nor of the actress, Kerry Fox. Now I plan to read everything Janet Frame ever wrote and to see whatever else is available with Kerry Fox or by Jane Campion.

"An Angel at My Table" (1990) made by Jane Campion is a true life-story of Janet Frame (1924-2004), New Zealand's most famous author. The film starts with young Jane, a funny -looking red haired girl, shy and quiet who knew too well that she was "poor, smelly, and unpopular". Then it follows her to misdiagnosis of schizophrenia and more than 200 electroshock treatments in a mental hospital where she had spent eight years and a severe, lifelong shyness that was her only problem. Even in the hospital she was writing and was able to have her book published - writing did save her from losing her mind. The film is based on three of her memoirs, "To the Is-land", "An Angel at My Table" and "The Envoy from Mirror City".

Jane Campion made a very affecting and quietly powerful portrait of a writer who also was a gentle and genuinely humble woman. The film is never a sentimental manipulating story of a talented but misunderstood artist. It does not idealize Frame but it is a very honest and sympathetic portrait of an artist.

this is my first jane campion movie and of course i was incredibly impressed. absolutely no punches are pulled in this one. and it has incredible cinematography that makes it seem like a dream and in some cases a nightmare. the scenes inside the insane asylum are unforgettable as is Fox's performance. get this one. you'll feel as all of this is taking place right in front of you.

This movie broke my heart in pieces the first time I saw it. I haven't been informed about Janet Frame's life before and this movie based on her autobiographies gave me the big picture that I find it too difficult to put it out of my mind.

Janet is lovely girl by all means, generous and caring to her friends, she has crooked teeth in her younger days but she was always an owner of a diamond heart. She was painfully shy too, and God knows how stupid people judged her as schizophrenic in the best days of her life. It was so scary to see stupid people
diagnosing a genius as schizophrenic when it was them who should
have been diagnosed like that. Anyways,they took eight years of her life, best part of her life in hospitals with real mentally ill people. It's a wonder how did she manage to stay sane in those circumstances but she did.

Today, Janet Frame is an old woman and I hope with all my heart that people will award her with a great world prize for the long eight years she spent in hospitals when nothing was wrong with her. She absolutely deserves some recognition as long as she's still alive.

She has written so many books apart from her autobiographies and I love her with all my heart for setting a great example to humanity that GOOD PEOPLE will ALWAYS TRIUMPH (un)fortunetaly in the long run that is.

A must see movie.

During the early 1990's, I was doing research into mental illness and Schizophrenia. This film is brilliant. I've viewed it at least three times. The confusion in Janet Frame's life proves that her, and all humans, willpower is triumphant. Little more is known now, as to the causes of mental illness. I also viewed Benny & Joon, Shine, Angel Baby, Awakenings, and Slingblade.

More films about the unravelling of one's reality, but not necessarily mental illness, include... Crash, Moonstruck, Mask, Different for Girls, Like Water for Chocolate, Men Don't Leave, Ma Vie En Rose = *My Life in Pink*, Beautiful Life, Maurice, Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me, Angels & Insects, and William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet, with Claire Danes!

Most of the detainees, or clients of the mental health system fight courageously against all manners of inner and outer torments. I own a well read copy of 'Surviving Schizophrenia' -I was given an out of print discarded library copy by a friend of my mother.