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.
Jane Campion's second feature focuses on the stormy life of one of New Zealand's most celebrated authors, Janet Frame.
Shown at the New York Film Festival and the Sydney Film Festival in 1990.
DVD Features:
Region 1
Keep Case
Special Edition
Widescreen - 1.77
Audio:
Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound - English
Additional Release Material:
Making Of
Audio Interview:
1. Janet Frame (1983)
Audio Commentary: Jane Campion - Director/Stuart Dryburgh
Trailers: Theatrical Trailer
Text/Photo Galleries:
Essay By Film Critic Amy Taubin
Excerpts From Janet Frame's Autobiography Which Formed The Basis Of The Film
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Review 1:
"...A triumph..."
Source: Rolling Stone
p.79 05/30/1991
Review 2:
"...A fine, rigorous adaptation....A very gentle film..."
Source: New York Times
p.C15 05/20/1991
Review 3:
"...[Campion's] trickiest and most delicate film..." -- Rating: B+
Source: Entertainment Weekly
pp.68-9 05/20/1994
Review 4:
"...Low-key and naturalistic....The film is like reading a diary....A great compliment to Campion is that the movie never seems less than genuine..."
Source: Los Angeles Times
p.F2 05/07/1992
Review 5:
"...Touching....Beguiling..."
Source: Film Comment
p.2-7 11/01/1990
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