Here’s the story of a woman who overcame adversity — not the dramatic, historical kind, but the sort of mundane discriminatory issues that come along with being ‘different.’ Director Jane Campion’s biographical drama about the unsteady life and amusing triumphs of New Zealand author Janet Frame was adapted from a TV miniseries. Poor, isolated and socially excluded, Frame jumps from one unfortunate problem to the next, but is repeatedly rescued by her own talent… at one point a writing award saves her from being lobotomized. Criterion’s extras include a candid audio interview with the author herself.
An Angel at My Table
Blu-ray
The Criterion Collection 301
1990 / Color / 1.78 widescreen / 158 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date August 6, 2019 / 31.96
Starring: Kerry Fox, Alexia Keogh, Karen Fergusson, Iris Churn, Jessie Mune, Kevin J. Wilson.
Cinematography: Stuart Dryburgh
Film Editor: Veronika Haeussler
Original Music: Don McGlashan
Written by Laura Jones from books by...
An Angel at My Table
Blu-ray
The Criterion Collection 301
1990 / Color / 1.78 widescreen / 158 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date August 6, 2019 / 31.96
Starring: Kerry Fox, Alexia Keogh, Karen Fergusson, Iris Churn, Jessie Mune, Kevin J. Wilson.
Cinematography: Stuart Dryburgh
Film Editor: Veronika Haeussler
Original Music: Don McGlashan
Written by Laura Jones from books by...
- 8/17/2019
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Cannes 1988 (L-r) John Maynard, whose feature The Navigator was in competition, Nzfc chief executive Jim Booth, Lindsay Shelton and distributor/producer Barrie Everard.
Many of our earliest highlights were at the Cannes Film Festival.
In 1980 we took New Zealand films to the market at Cannes for the first time. We persuaded Geoff Murphy to rush completion of Goodbye Pork Pie and it became New Zealand’s first commercial hit in terms of sales: Six contracts for distribution in 20 countries.
John Laing’s Beyond Reasonable Doubt and Roger Donaldson’s Smash Palace earned success in the market in our second year – with Roger’s film getting one of our first deals for theatrical release in the USA.
In 1982 New Zealand earned official selection at Cannes for the first time with Sam Pillsbury’s The Scarecrow in Directors’ Fortnight.
That was followed in 1983 by Geoff Murphy’s Utu in official selection out...
Many of our earliest highlights were at the Cannes Film Festival.
In 1980 we took New Zealand films to the market at Cannes for the first time. We persuaded Geoff Murphy to rush completion of Goodbye Pork Pie and it became New Zealand’s first commercial hit in terms of sales: Six contracts for distribution in 20 countries.
John Laing’s Beyond Reasonable Doubt and Roger Donaldson’s Smash Palace earned success in the market in our second year – with Roger’s film getting one of our first deals for theatrical release in the USA.
In 1982 New Zealand earned official selection at Cannes for the first time with Sam Pillsbury’s The Scarecrow in Directors’ Fortnight.
That was followed in 1983 by Geoff Murphy’s Utu in official selection out...
- 11/21/2018
- by The IF Team
- IF.com.au
This is the latest installment of a series exploring significant films from the careers of directors showing new work at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival.
Jane Campion doesn’t put much stock in labels — seemingly preferring to adhere to the old Groucho Marx chestnut, “I don’t want to belong to any club that will accept people like me as a member” — and has spent her career pursuing work that speaks to her sensibilities. Ask Campion for her own views of feminism, and you’re likely to get an answer like the one she gave fellow filmmaker Katherine Dieckmann in a chat for Interview Magazine back in 1992, when she was still working on “The Piano” (then known as “The Piano Lesson”): “I don’t belong to any clubs, and I dislike club mentality of any kind, even feminism—although I do relate to the purpose and point of feminism.”
Clubs,...
Jane Campion doesn’t put much stock in labels — seemingly preferring to adhere to the old Groucho Marx chestnut, “I don’t want to belong to any club that will accept people like me as a member” — and has spent her career pursuing work that speaks to her sensibilities. Ask Campion for her own views of feminism, and you’re likely to get an answer like the one she gave fellow filmmaker Katherine Dieckmann in a chat for Interview Magazine back in 1992, when she was still working on “The Piano” (then known as “The Piano Lesson”): “I don’t belong to any clubs, and I dislike club mentality of any kind, even feminism—although I do relate to the purpose and point of feminism.”
Clubs,...
- 5/13/2017
- by Kate Erbland
- Indiewire
Raised By Wolves' co-writer chats about mining her childhood for comedy and why The Imperial Death March is the perfect writing motivator...
Tonight, the first series of Caitlin and Caroline Moran's sitcom, Raised By Wolves, comes to an end. Heavily inspired and based on their own adventures growing up in the West Midlands - although this particular writer veers geographically more towards Dudley than Wolverhampton - the six episodes have also given Rebekah Staton in particular a standout role as the kind of mum telly doesn't get very often.
Ahead of the series finale tonight, Caroline put down her pen/quill/word processor/Game Of Thrones boxset to spare us some time to talk about it...
It's a basic question, perhaps, but I'm interested in the answer. How has it been having your own sitcom on the television for the past month? How closely are you monitoring feedback and reaction to it?...
Tonight, the first series of Caitlin and Caroline Moran's sitcom, Raised By Wolves, comes to an end. Heavily inspired and based on their own adventures growing up in the West Midlands - although this particular writer veers geographically more towards Dudley than Wolverhampton - the six episodes have also given Rebekah Staton in particular a standout role as the kind of mum telly doesn't get very often.
Ahead of the series finale tonight, Caroline put down her pen/quill/word processor/Game Of Thrones boxset to spare us some time to talk about it...
It's a basic question, perhaps, but I'm interested in the answer. How has it been having your own sitcom on the television for the past month? How closely are you monitoring feedback and reaction to it?...
- 4/20/2015
- by louisamellor
- Den of Geek
New Zealand director, producer and scriptwriter Jane Campion will preside over the Jury of the 67th Festival de Cannes, which will take place from 14 to 25 May 2014.
Campion said, “Since I first went to Cannes with my short films in 1986, I have had the opportunity to see the festival from many sides and my admiration for this Queen of film festivals has only grown larger. At the Cannes Film Festival they manage to combine and celebrate the glamour of the industry, the stars, the parties, the beaches, the business, while rigorously maintaining the festival’s seriousness about the Art and excellence of new world cinema.”
Jane Campion is the only female director to have won the Palme d’Or, for The Piano in 1993 and the Short Film Palme d’Or back in 1986 for Peel.
Thierry Frémaux, Cannes Delegate General, said: “We are immensely proud that Jane Campion has accepted our invitation.
Campion said, “Since I first went to Cannes with my short films in 1986, I have had the opportunity to see the festival from many sides and my admiration for this Queen of film festivals has only grown larger. At the Cannes Film Festival they manage to combine and celebrate the glamour of the industry, the stars, the parties, the beaches, the business, while rigorously maintaining the festival’s seriousness about the Art and excellence of new world cinema.”
Jane Campion is the only female director to have won the Palme d’Or, for The Piano in 1993 and the Short Film Palme d’Or back in 1986 for Peel.
Thierry Frémaux, Cannes Delegate General, said: “We are immensely proud that Jane Campion has accepted our invitation.
- 1/7/2014
- by NewsDesk
- DearCinema.com
It.s mid-December and Jane Campion is three days away from finishing post-production on the final episode of TV series Top of the Lake. We.re sitting in See-Saw Films. Paddington office and she.s looking at her phone reading a message from leading lady Elisabeth Moss. She.s pleased and Moss is ecstatic. ..Jane, you can have whatever you want... you can have my first-born child. I just watched the first two episodes: I.m completely blown away, I.m speechless...
It.s a ringing endorsement from the American actor whose casting nearly turned the New Zealand-set production on its head before a single frame was even shot. Moss plays Robin Griffin, a straight-talking detective called into investigate the mysterious disappearance of a pregnant twelve year-old in Top of the Lake, Campion.s six-part crime mystery involving lashings of murder, drugs and sex.
For the director, Moss. initial audition...
It.s a ringing endorsement from the American actor whose casting nearly turned the New Zealand-set production on its head before a single frame was even shot. Moss plays Robin Griffin, a straight-talking detective called into investigate the mysterious disappearance of a pregnant twelve year-old in Top of the Lake, Campion.s six-part crime mystery involving lashings of murder, drugs and sex.
For the director, Moss. initial audition...
- 5/16/2013
- by Brendan Swift
- IF.com.au
The Skin I Live In star on the 'terrifying responsibility' of working with Spain's great director, Pedro Almodóvar
Ten years ago, the Spanish film-maker Pedro Almodóvar called Elena Anaya and asked to meet. She went to Madrid and immediately the director started to apologise profusely; he had a tiny role in his new project, he explained, but he couldn't imagine anyone else playing it. The young actor told him to stop: "I said to him I would be a vase or a lampshade if he wanted – facing a wall or whatever," she remembers now. The film was Talk to Her and Almodóvar was not exaggerating; Anaya's part is so small that when her father went to the premiere, he didn't even notice she was in it.
A decade on, Almodóvar called again. The intervening years had been good to both of them: Almodóvar had evolved his lurid, exuberant early films...
Ten years ago, the Spanish film-maker Pedro Almodóvar called Elena Anaya and asked to meet. She went to Madrid and immediately the director started to apologise profusely; he had a tiny role in his new project, he explained, but he couldn't imagine anyone else playing it. The young actor told him to stop: "I said to him I would be a vase or a lampshade if he wanted – facing a wall or whatever," she remembers now. The film was Talk to Her and Almodóvar was not exaggerating; Anaya's part is so small that when her father went to the premiere, he didn't even notice she was in it.
A decade on, Almodóvar called again. The intervening years had been good to both of them: Almodóvar had evolved his lurid, exuberant early films...
- 8/13/2011
- by Tim Lewis
- The Guardian - Film News
The result is a film that should please her growing number of admirers and also rope in the more sedate art-house crowd, including those who like a genteel treatment of even the most shocking subjects. Although it has a bit of a built-in handicap at its 160-minute running time, its three-part structure manages to keep the narrative brisk all the same, and this special jury prize winner from the 1990 Venice Film Festival looks like a solid specialty entry.
The film is based on three autobiographical volumes by New Zealand novelist Janet Frame, who, despite a Depression-era childhood in economically deprived rural New Zealand and a misdiagnosis of schizophrenia during her college years, managed to turn herself into a prize-winning writer.
Each of the film's three sections deals with a different part of her life, concentrating on the way the shy and withdrawn Frame managed to impose a gentle order on the aggressive and threatening world around her through the obdurate persistence of her own vision.
''To the Is-Land'' follows Frame (played by Alexia Keogh and Karen Fergusson) from childhood through the dawn of adolescence, concentrating on her relations with her family and her earliest attempts at writing. Although marked by the death of a much-beloved sister, this part of the film, warmer and more nostalgic than what follows, is an appropriate introductory interlude.
In ''An Angel at My Table, '' Frame goes off to teacher's college, where her withdrawn temperament leads a kindly teacher to suspect her of being mentally ill. The misdiagnosis and eight years of hospitalization, including shock treatment, follows before public recognition from her writing causes the doctors to examine and ultimately release her.
In ''The Envoy From Mirror City, '' Frame embarks on a literary fellowship to Europe, where she must navigate all the poseurs and predators of '50s bohemia in London and Ibiza. Here the film rounds itself off perfectly, as Frame indulges her romantic passions, experiences more lionization, and finally is cleared of the lingering diagnosis of schizophrenia.
Campion, working from a screenplay by Laura Jones, never strays from Frame's point of view. As a result, although there are twists in the plot that occasionally do not become immediately clear, their dawning impact on Frame has an undiluted power.
All the performances are good --particularly the two younger leads Keogh and Fergusson, Iris Churn as Frame's mother, David Letch as a possessive Irishman, and William Brandt as an American fling -- but as the older Frame, Kerry Fox is exceptional, all soft and passive on her auburn-and-white outside, but still suggestive of the quiet determination that led her character to persevere in the face of such awful circumstances.
Finally, in a film that would not at first glance seem to provide such opportunities, cinematographer Stuart Dryburgh has manipulated light and color in a way that matches Frame's emotional advances and retreats with their correlatives in warmth and hue.
AN ANGEL AT MY TABLE
Fine Line Features
Director Jane Campion
Producer Bridget Ikin
Co-producer John Maynard
Screenplay Laura Jones
Cinematography Stuart Dryburgh
Production designer Grant Major
Costume designer Glenys Jackson
Editor Veronika Haussler
Composer Don McGlashan
Color
Cast:
Janet Frame Kerry Fox
Young Janet Alexia Keogh
Teenage Janet Karen Fergusson
Mum Iris Churn
Elasping time -- 158 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
(c) The Hollywood Reporter...
The film is based on three autobiographical volumes by New Zealand novelist Janet Frame, who, despite a Depression-era childhood in economically deprived rural New Zealand and a misdiagnosis of schizophrenia during her college years, managed to turn herself into a prize-winning writer.
Each of the film's three sections deals with a different part of her life, concentrating on the way the shy and withdrawn Frame managed to impose a gentle order on the aggressive and threatening world around her through the obdurate persistence of her own vision.
''To the Is-Land'' follows Frame (played by Alexia Keogh and Karen Fergusson) from childhood through the dawn of adolescence, concentrating on her relations with her family and her earliest attempts at writing. Although marked by the death of a much-beloved sister, this part of the film, warmer and more nostalgic than what follows, is an appropriate introductory interlude.
In ''An Angel at My Table, '' Frame goes off to teacher's college, where her withdrawn temperament leads a kindly teacher to suspect her of being mentally ill. The misdiagnosis and eight years of hospitalization, including shock treatment, follows before public recognition from her writing causes the doctors to examine and ultimately release her.
In ''The Envoy From Mirror City, '' Frame embarks on a literary fellowship to Europe, where she must navigate all the poseurs and predators of '50s bohemia in London and Ibiza. Here the film rounds itself off perfectly, as Frame indulges her romantic passions, experiences more lionization, and finally is cleared of the lingering diagnosis of schizophrenia.
Campion, working from a screenplay by Laura Jones, never strays from Frame's point of view. As a result, although there are twists in the plot that occasionally do not become immediately clear, their dawning impact on Frame has an undiluted power.
All the performances are good --particularly the two younger leads Keogh and Fergusson, Iris Churn as Frame's mother, David Letch as a possessive Irishman, and William Brandt as an American fling -- but as the older Frame, Kerry Fox is exceptional, all soft and passive on her auburn-and-white outside, but still suggestive of the quiet determination that led her character to persevere in the face of such awful circumstances.
Finally, in a film that would not at first glance seem to provide such opportunities, cinematographer Stuart Dryburgh has manipulated light and color in a way that matches Frame's emotional advances and retreats with their correlatives in warmth and hue.
AN ANGEL AT MY TABLE
Fine Line Features
Director Jane Campion
Producer Bridget Ikin
Co-producer John Maynard
Screenplay Laura Jones
Cinematography Stuart Dryburgh
Production designer Grant Major
Costume designer Glenys Jackson
Editor Veronika Haussler
Composer Don McGlashan
Color
Cast:
Janet Frame Kerry Fox
Young Janet Alexia Keogh
Teenage Janet Karen Fergusson
Mum Iris Churn
Elasping time -- 158 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
(c) The Hollywood Reporter...
- 6/12/1991
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
The result is a film that should please her growing number of admirers and also rope in the more sedate art-house crowd, including those who like a genteel treatment of even the most shocking subjects. Although it has a bit of a built-in handicap at its 160-minute running time, its three-part structure manages to keep the narrative brisk all the same, and this special jury prize winner from the 1990 Venice Film Festival looks like a solid specialty entry.
The film is based on three autobiographical volumes by New Zealand novelist Janet Frame, who, despite a Depression-era childhood in economically deprived rural New Zea-
AN ANGEL AT MY TABLE
Fine Line Features
Director Jane Campion
Producer Bridget Ikin
Co-producer John Maynard
Screenplay Laura Jones
Cinematography Stuart Dryburgh
Production designer Grant Major
Costume designer Glenys Jackson
Editor Veronika Haussler
Composer Don McGlashan
Color
Cast:
Janet Frame Kerry Fox
Young Janet Alexia Keogh
Teenage Janet Karen Fergusson
Mum Iris Churn
Running time -- 158 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
land and a misdiagnosis of schizophrenia during her college years, managed to turn herself into a prize-winning writer.
Each of the film's three sections deals with a different part of her life, concentrating on the way the shy and withdrawn Frame managed to impose a gentle order on the aggressive and threatening world around her through the obdurate persistence of her own vision.
''To the Is-Land'' follows Frame (played by Alexia Keogh and Karen Fergusson) from childhood through the dawn of adolescence, concentrating on her relations with her family and her earliest attempts at writing. Although marked by the death of a much-beloved sister, this part of the film, warmer and more nostalgic than what follows, is an appropriate introductory interlude.
In ''An Angel at My Table, '' Frame goes off to teacher's college, where her withdrawn temperament leads a kindly teacher to suspect her of being mentally ill. The misdiagnosis and eight years of hospitalization, including shock treatment, follows before public recognition from her writing causes the doctors to examine and ultimately release her.
In ''The Envoy From Mirror City, '' Frame embarks on a literary fellowship to Europe, where she must navigate all the poseurs and predators of '50s bohemia in London and Ibiza. Here the film rounds itself off perfectly, as Frame indulges her romantic passions, experiences more lionization, and finally is cleared of the lingering diagnosis of schizophrenia.
Campion, working from a screenplay by Laura Jones, never strays from Frame's point of view. As a result, although there are twists in the plot that occasionally do not become immediately clear, their dawning impact on Frame has an undiluted power.
All the performances are good --particularly the two younger leads Keogh and Fergusson, Iris Churn as Frame's mother, David Letch as a possessive Irishman, and William Brandt as an American fling -- but as the older Frame, Kerry Fox is exceptional, all soft and passive on her auburn-and-white outside, but still suggestive of the quiet determination that led her character to persevere in the face of such awful circumstances.
Finally, in a film that would not at first glance seem to provide such opportunities, cinematographer Stuart Dryburgh has manipulated light and color in a way that matches Frame's emotional advances and retreats with their correlatives in warmth and hue.
(c) The Hollywood Reporter...
The film is based on three autobiographical volumes by New Zealand novelist Janet Frame, who, despite a Depression-era childhood in economically deprived rural New Zea-
AN ANGEL AT MY TABLE
Fine Line Features
Director Jane Campion
Producer Bridget Ikin
Co-producer John Maynard
Screenplay Laura Jones
Cinematography Stuart Dryburgh
Production designer Grant Major
Costume designer Glenys Jackson
Editor Veronika Haussler
Composer Don McGlashan
Color
Cast:
Janet Frame Kerry Fox
Young Janet Alexia Keogh
Teenage Janet Karen Fergusson
Mum Iris Churn
Running time -- 158 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
land and a misdiagnosis of schizophrenia during her college years, managed to turn herself into a prize-winning writer.
Each of the film's three sections deals with a different part of her life, concentrating on the way the shy and withdrawn Frame managed to impose a gentle order on the aggressive and threatening world around her through the obdurate persistence of her own vision.
''To the Is-Land'' follows Frame (played by Alexia Keogh and Karen Fergusson) from childhood through the dawn of adolescence, concentrating on her relations with her family and her earliest attempts at writing. Although marked by the death of a much-beloved sister, this part of the film, warmer and more nostalgic than what follows, is an appropriate introductory interlude.
In ''An Angel at My Table, '' Frame goes off to teacher's college, where her withdrawn temperament leads a kindly teacher to suspect her of being mentally ill. The misdiagnosis and eight years of hospitalization, including shock treatment, follows before public recognition from her writing causes the doctors to examine and ultimately release her.
In ''The Envoy From Mirror City, '' Frame embarks on a literary fellowship to Europe, where she must navigate all the poseurs and predators of '50s bohemia in London and Ibiza. Here the film rounds itself off perfectly, as Frame indulges her romantic passions, experiences more lionization, and finally is cleared of the lingering diagnosis of schizophrenia.
Campion, working from a screenplay by Laura Jones, never strays from Frame's point of view. As a result, although there are twists in the plot that occasionally do not become immediately clear, their dawning impact on Frame has an undiluted power.
All the performances are good --particularly the two younger leads Keogh and Fergusson, Iris Churn as Frame's mother, David Letch as a possessive Irishman, and William Brandt as an American fling -- but as the older Frame, Kerry Fox is exceptional, all soft and passive on her auburn-and-white outside, but still suggestive of the quiet determination that led her character to persevere in the face of such awful circumstances.
Finally, in a film that would not at first glance seem to provide such opportunities, cinematographer Stuart Dryburgh has manipulated light and color in a way that matches Frame's emotional advances and retreats with their correlatives in warmth and hue.
(c) The Hollywood Reporter...
- 6/12/1991
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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