Criterion Collection (series)

An Angel at My Table

DVD Features:

Audio:

• Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound - English

Additional Release Material:

• Audio Commentary - 1. Jane Campion - Director/Stuart Dryburgh
• Audio Interview - 1. Janet Frame (1983)
• Making-Of
• Trailer - 1. Theatrical Trailer

Text/Photo Galleries:

• Essay By Film Critic Amy Taubin
• Excerpts From Janet Frame's Autobiography Which Formed The Basis Of The Film

Product Description:

This sprawling, detailed film by Jane Campion (THE PIANO) tells the true story of Janet Frame, a painfully sensitive girl who managed to escape a dreary rural upbringing and eight years in a mental hospital to become New Zealand's premier poet. The film unfolds as a trilogy, with each section based on a different Frame autobiography. "To the Is-Land" chronicles her childhood and awkward teenage years. "An Angel at My Table" focuses on her time as a teacher and her horrifying mental institution experience. "The Envoy from Mirror City" finds Frame an emerging, critically lauded writer traveling on a grant in Europe and finding love for the first time.

Kerry Fox, as the adult Frame, is astonishing. She transmits painfully self-aware shyness until it rubs off on the viewer. Campion expertly captures the details of Frame's time and place, creating a brutal, impersonal world by turns unremittingly dreary and starkly beautiful. Stunning, exhausting, brilliant, this acclaimed film debuted on New Zealand TV as a miniseries and was later edited for feature-length release internationally.

Plot Synopsis:

Jane Campion's second feature focuses on the stormy life of one of New Zealand's most celebrated authors, Janet Frame.

Plot Keywords:

Biography | Classic | Drama | Injustice | Mental Illness | Personal Triumph | Recommended | Self-Discovery | Theatrical Release | True Story

Production Notes:

• Shown at the New York Film Festival and the Sydney Film Festival in 1990.

Cast and Crew: