WMNF-FM The Women's Show
                     Film Review of "Angel at My Table"
                          By Linda Lopez McAlister

   Today I want to tell you about a magnificent film called "An
Angel at My Table."  This is an expansive and ambitious filming
of the life of New Zealand writer Janet Frame, directed by the
remarkable young New Zealand director Jane Campion.  Perhaps you
remember Campion's debut feature film "Sweetie" that played here
about a year and a half ago, and is now in the video stores.
That was an impressive debut that showed Campion as having a very
distinctive and original vision. This film, "An Angel at my
Table", makes it even clearer that Campion is one of the major
talents--male or female--working in film today.

   The film is based on Janet Frame's three autobiographical
volumes: "To the Island," "An Angel at my Table," and "Envoy from the
Mirror City," and the film is, likewise, a trilogy, with the first
section covering Frame's impoverished childhood in rural New
Zealand during the Depression years, the middle section about her
experiences in teacher's college, her early writing efforts, and
her (mis)diagnosis as a schizophrenic and her subsequent
commitment in a mental institution for eight years, from which
the only thing that saves her is being awarded a prestigious
literary prize for her first book of short stories "Lagoon." The
last section of the film deals with her mature career as a
writer, her extended visit in England, France and Spain and her
growing recognition as a writer, and finally her return to New
Zealand.

   I could go on forever about the things I like about this film
but I guess what stands out the most for me is Campion's vivid
use of visual language as the vehicle of her narrative; she is
strikingly original and right on target emotionally.  Let me give
you some of the many examples. The second sequence in the film
shows little Janet Frame at about 7 or 8 years old, with her bushy
Little-Orphan-Annie-shock of flaming red hair, striding up a dirt
road cutting through the rolling New Zealand hills toward the
camera, stopping, hesitating a minute, and then turning back and
striding just as purposefully back where she came from. This is
a movement that will be repeated in various forms throughout the
film and serves as a visual metaphor for the course of Frame's
life--repeatedly venturing out and going back.

  The film has a gallery of memorable characters in small cameos
and one of the most striking is the high school literature
teacher, with her hennaed hair, leg brace, and academic robe who
launches into Mallory's Morte d' Arthur; so vivid is her dramatic
reading that the girls in the class are transfixed and when the
hand reaches up and clasps Excalibur by its jewel-encrusted hilt
they see that sword before their very eyes.  We know this because
we see it too--for one almost subliminally fast instant the image
of the hand grasping the sword is on the screen.  It's a
brilliant and brilliantly economical way of making a dramatic
point about the influence of this teacher's passionate love of
literature on young Janet's imagination.

  Finally, the most wonderful visual moment of all comes near the
end of the film when Janet returns to New Zealand after the death
of her much-beloved father.  She's cleaning out his little house
and her eyes fall on his battered old work boots beside the bed.
She slips off her shoes and slowly slips her feet into these
boots and just for a few seconds she takes on his posture and
makes one of his characteristic gestures and the scene fades out.
It speaks volumes about Janet, about her relationship with and
love for her father, and for the way in which she has finally
been able to come to terms with the death of dear family members-
something which has plagued her all her life and contributed to
her bouts with depression and mental illness.  This little
sequence is a cinematic treasure that I'll cherish forever. The
whole film is.  Keep an eye open for a chance to see "An Angel on
My Table."  You'll cherish it too.

    For the WMNF Women's Show this is Linda Lopez McAlister on
Women and Film.