An Angel at My Table

An Angel at My Table (1990) starring Kerry Fox. Directed by Jane Campion. The life of New Zealand's most celebrated and prolific author, Janet Frame, is told in this biopic based on her autobiography. Frame, who appears to have suffered from social anxiety disorder, was falsely diagnosed as schizophrenic as a young woman; she was confined to a lunatic asylum for eight years and subjected to 200 electroshock treatments during this time. She also lost two sisters to drowning in separate incidents and had a brother who was epileptic. Somehow, through all this, she managed to write a book of short stories which was published while she was in the asylum, and which saved her from undergoing a lobotomy. After her book was published, she traveled to London, Paris and Spain, all the while continuing to write. In Spain she at last fell in love -- with an American who left her at the end of the summer to return to his teaching job. The movie, though a bit long at two and a half hours, tells her story with sympathy and not too much pity. Frame's stature as an author, especially in her native New Zealand, can scarcely be exaggerated. She became a towering literary figure, despite the hardships she endured. This is an amazing story about triumph over adversity. (Subtitles in English are available, although they are a bit hard to find.) Grade: B+