Powerful

hyped garbage

It's funny watching the elements come together in this complicated scam. On one hand, the set-up isn't quite as complex as it seems, but there's an easy sense of fun in every exchange.

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

I watched this story years ago and discovered the youth of Janet Frame and i was glad at the beginning. The beginning where we can see Janet as a little girl is full of life and animated.The little red-haired actress is funny with her hair and malice even if she has bad times at school especially with her teacher who punishes her for stealing money..We can see that Janet is oppressed and has no friends..So sad but she keeps her good mood and discovers books and literature and soon develops a passion for books and poems..then she is an adolescent and loves writing poems and studying but her life is marred by two tragedies ,the death of two of her siblings in a horrible way.She begins to change and feel depressed with maybe a feeling of guilt..Then in the next part Janet grew up and is a young adult portrayed by Kerry fox but things are getting complicated.Janet must work and begins to teach but she is awfully shy ,in a sick way and she has outbursts of anguish.Unfortunately she will be admitted in a psychiatrist ward and stay there for 8 years totally cut off from the outside world and considered like an abnormal person but she will continue to write which will save her. After this time i got bored of this film because it was too long and the character of Janet is quite lonely which made me think of a pathological woman ,unable to communicate and almost autistic. I think that this movie is sincerely too long and 30 minutes less would have been enough with a good end because the end is difficult to understand.It isn't a family movie neither like an entertainment but a study of character ,a psychological movie with oppressive moments.

Campion's work throughout the years has been inspirational, dark, moving, and powerful. Her ability to bring characters alive through words, actions, and emotions cannot be matched by many directors in Hollywood today. For this critic, her work is reminiscent of a female Lars von Trier, in which her ability to bring these larger than life characters out of their shell transforms them into darkened characters which evoke inspiring (yet saddening) events. As I watched "An Angel at my Table", I was reminded of Bess' journey with her husband, and consequentially her life, in Trier's "Breaking the Waves". Campion, without a doubt, is a director that stands on her own two feet and this film is pure example of that. To begin, Campion's direction is flawless. This is nearly a three-hour long biography of Janet Frame's life from young girl to the author she became. For some directors this may create an opportunity to enhance other characters, to trivialize smaller events so that we can do bigger things, or to just push along, very slowly, until we all nod off from boredom. Believe me; I have sat through my fare share of stunningly dull biopics. Campion proves she is better by breaking the film into three segments (three parts of Frame's autobiography), giving us amazing imagery coupled with a brisk pace that doesn't loose any of its translation or excitement. Her use of colors, the boldness of Frame's red hair, the powerful background of New Zealand (and eventually Europe) challenges us to pay closer attention, giving us not just a story worthy of our minds, but also our eyes and heart. The colors also provide a vivid counterpoint to the harsh realities of what Frame faces, her fears and her erroneous placement into hospital.I thought this film was flawless, thus I can continue to babble on about how much I enjoyed Campion's film technique and style. She allowed us to make our own decisions on Frame, but also filmed in a style that never cramped our viewing space. We were never forced to just focus on Frame, but we did because Kerry Fox gave us this pure, uncut portrayal of Janet Frame. Due to this originally being filmed for New Zealand television, I can only assume it eliminated Fox from being nominated for an Academy Award, but she 100%, who heartedly, hands-down deserved it. Her performance, from someone I had never seen before, was phenomenal. She literally transformed herself into this character, every step that Fox took on screen she was taking it in the way that (we can only assume) Frame would do it as well. What I am trying to say is that while I never saw Janet Frame herself, Fox never went out of the character we were first introduced to. Fox's Frame grew with each frame, exposing herself differently to us and giving us a new side of her each time. Again, I am drooling on myself, but "An Angel at my Table" is one of those films that should be watched by film students eager to learn how to get into the mind of their characters. This would prove to them that there is more than just what is written on the page, and fully demonstrating how to bring a soul into a man-made story. Kerry Fox was everything you wanted to see on screen, she was emotional, sensitive, caring, unquestionably curious, scared, and yet completely and utterly human. Coupled with Campion's direction, the two take what could have been a bland film and transformed it into one of the greatest performances over the past 20 years.For what other reasons should you watch this film? If you aren't as impressed with the direction or Fox's performance, Criterion packs the DVD with plenty of bonus features, but as well as an amazing transfer. The sound, the music of Frame's life, is breathtaking. It accompanies the vision and Fox's actions perfectly. The song sung by the sisters on the beach of New Zealand still remains with me today, nearly four days after my viewing of this film. The other actors are very good in this film, alas; I cannot say anything further because my focus was entirely captured on Kerry Fox. Yes, she was that amazing. The bonus features on this disc, as mentioned before, are great to learn more about how Campion directed this film as well as her thoughts via an audio commentary. In essence, the Criterion release of this film is the only way to watch this. It is a flawless disc for a flawless film. I am excited and proud to have this within my catalogue of films.Overall, in case you haven't been paying attention this entire time, "An Angel at my Table" was nothing short of perfection. When I raise this film up to other biography based films, there isn't one that compares. Campion's work continues to impress as she grows, developing her strengths in other genres, and pushing actors to new limits beyond what we expect, i.e. though battered by critics, see Meg Ryan's performance in "In the Cut". "An Angel at my Table" has a perfect blend of score, outstanding visuals, enthralling storytelling, and again, this powerful ability to control her actors and expect nothing less than their best. Kerry Fox should be studied by students in this film, Campion's direction glides this actor from scene to scene, but Fox carries it all on her shoulders, with pride and with power. This was not an easy film to create, but with Campion and Fox behind the helm what could have been a very dull, overly dramatic biography on the great Janet Frame, transformed into this staple of modern cinema, a map (so to speak) for others who wish to create films based on real people – "An Angel at my Table" would lead you straight to the gold. Watch it. Be impressed. Than watch it again. Rinse, wash, repeat.Grade: ***** out of *****

Slow start, great finish. Since I saw this on video I fast forwarded through a lot of the first sections. In much of the first 2/3's many scenes were so quick and enigmatically done that I wasn't sure what was happening or who the people were. Many other scenes were so drawn out and slow I was bored. I don't know why I slogged through it, but once it got to the adult portion it was fascinating and very moving.From what I have seen on Jane Campion movies, she is much more visual than dialogue-based. Wonderful to watch, but often confusing.

I discovered this incredible film by accident, if there are such things as accidents like this...I saw the title in a movie review book (and a very brief summary) and it intrigued me. Because I knew it was a New Zealand import from years ago, I never even bothered trying to locate a copy. So when it called out to me months later from the shelves in the video shop, I felt eerily compelled to rent it. I watched it by myself in the wee hours of the morning--and it could not have been more ideal.An Angel at My Table is the story of New Zealand's famous writer, Janet Frame. Fairly long, but never boring, it is told in three 50 minute interludes, taking us through her impoverished childhood, awkward adolescence, and the terrifying and eventually triumphant years that follow: Janet was a plump little girl, with an unruly mop of bright red hair. She was fascinated with books and stories at an early age ~ a friend had lent her a copy of Grimm's which she treasured. A certificate of merit in grade school allowed her the use of the public library where she became even more immersed in literature. Despite financial hardships, her father managed to buy her a journal "for her writings." By her late teens she was no longer plump, but a rather crippling shyness had set in. At social functions she played the wallflower. She preferred to be by herself, where she could nurture her passion for creating stories. She went on to become a teacher (though the idea no longer appealed to her), and suffered a panic attack when a supervisor "sat in" on one of her classes. It was advised that Janet have a psychiatric evaluation--a misdiagnosis of schizophrenia (later changed to nothing more than shyness and depression) landed her in a mental institution for eight years of electric shock therapy, each session she narrated to be: "equal in fear to that of an execution." She was scheduled for a partial lobotomy when news reached her doctors that she had won a national literary award--during her hospitalization her sister had published a book of Janet's short stories. She was almost immediately released under the premise that a talented author couldn't possibly need the treatment she had been receiving....At this point Janet was in her late twenties, but her lengthy "exile" had given the impression that she was considerably younger than that. A friend of the family's, another writer who admired her work, offered her a cottage on his property so that she could write seriously in a distraction-free environment. She accepted the offer and her first completed work there was accepted soon after. European travels were arranged for her, more successful books were born, and fame attained...I've heard it claimed that Janet had also attained happiness, but I am not sure that I agree. Janet had found numerous freedoms, emotional and financial and of course physical, but happiness? I believe that she had become comfortable with herself, and perhaps that in itself is a happiness. She never did fit into the surrounding world--but lived peacefully alone on the vaporous outskirts. A very supportive therapist in London had told her, "If people tell you that you should go out there and mix, and you don't feel like it,...don't." She took his words to heart.I was surprised with the overall beauty of this film~I guess I should not have been~the director was Jane Campion (The Piano, Portrait of a Lady). The New Zealand landscapes and backstreets of Spain were gorgeously rendered, the accompanying score at times both capricious and melancholy. But above all, what struck me most, was how I identified with Janet. The plump and impoverished childhood, the obsession with writing, the painful shyness and reclusiveness. The life of the outsider~luckily minus the stay in the psychiatric ward. On some level I was Janet (or am Janet). And there is something oddly redemptive in finding a twin on screen or in a book, however juvenile the notion...