An Angel at My Table (1990)
Jane Campion directed this film, originally intended as a tv movie for New Zealand television, about author Janet Frame.
Janet, born in 1924 in rural New Zealand, grows up in poverty, and suffers from severe shyness. She has a supportive family, but sadly, her adolescence is marked by two tragic deaths. The closer she gets to adulthood, the less able she is to deal with the world. Janet is so shy that she keeps almost totally to herself when she goes college - refusing any offer to go out or even share tea with people. What she does have, though, is her writing. From a very young age she loves to write and she knows she's good at it. Throughout the movie, even during some periods of severe stress, words keep her going. Janet spends years of her twenties in mental institutions (and I'm continuously amazed by how awful those places were in the 40s and 50s) and her writing literally saves her.
The movie could be depressing - but it never really is. I knew that Janet would survive her troubles - not only because I knew she had to eventually become a famous author - but also because even though she's awkward and hesitant - she's not weak. Kerry Fox plays Janet beautifully as a sweet, shy girl who couldn't say 'boo' to a goose but who also always knows she's a smart person and a damn good writer.
Jane Campion crafted the film wonderfully. There's very little exposition and none of that annoying "and then this happened and then that happened" that most biopics unconsciously fall into. As I watched I felt like Janet because I didn't know what was going to happen next in her life. Campion also puts in a great sense of physicality - she includes the bodily functions and dirtiness and unkempt-ness of the world.
Ultimately, the movie is almost triumphant because Janet Frame creates the life she wants for herself, in spite of all the ways the world claims she's deficient. I personally found it inspiring because while I'm not as shy as Janet was - for most of my childhood I came close. There are several experiences that Janet has that are eerily similar to things that have happened to me. But I think that's because a lot of her experiences probably happen to a lot of women. In that way, this is a film for every woman who doesn't fit in - which is probably how 95% of us feel.
