An Angel at My Table (1990) on Netflix
Janet Frame grows up poor in New Zealand, writing poetry from an early age. She trains as a teacher, then is admitted to a psychiatric ward and diagnosed with schizophrenia.
- Netflix3.5/5
- IMDb7.4/109,533 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes96%
Trailer
Plot summary
Janet Frame grows up on New Zealand's South Island in a large family that has little money. She takes to poetry and to Grimms' Fairy Tales as a child, and as a teenager she spends time with her sisters Myrtle and Isabel, and with their friends Poppy and Marguerite. After Myrtle drowns, Janet mourns her and burns the poems she wrote as a child, and she becomes withdrawn. As a young woman she studies at university and stays with her Aunt Isy and Uncle George. By 1945 she is training as a teacher, but she quits after a visit from an inspector, works as a nurse, and decides to make her living as a writer. She is admitted to a psychiatric ward, where she is diagnosed with schizophrenia.
Cast
- Karen Fergussonas Janet Frame as a teenager
- Iris Churnas Mother
- Jessie Muneas Baby Janet
- Edith Campionas Miss Lindsay
- Francesca Collinsas Baby Jane
- Melina Berneckeras Myrtle
- Mark Morrisonas Bruddie Frame as child
- Katherine Murray-Cowperas Young Isabel
- Mark Thomsonas Billy Delaware
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about An Angel at My Table (1990)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- An Angel at My Table was the first film from New Zealand ever screened at the Venice Film Festival, where it won the Grand Special Jury Prize amid protests from the audience that it had been denied the top award, the Golden Lion.
- The film launched director Jane Campion's career and actress Kerry Fox's career, and it also introduced a much wider audience to the autobiographical writing of New Zealand author Janet Frame.
