An Angel at My Table

The difficult life and times of celebrated author Janet Frame provided the source material for An Angel at my Table, the film that put Jane Campion on the map as one of our most talented filmmakers.

Themes of poverty and mental illness mean this isn’t an uplifting treatment of the ‘portrait of the artist’ mould. It’s unsentimental approach and refusal to sugar-coat gives the film real emotional gravity. The darkness is poetically expressed through production design (via Grant Major of Lord of the Rings fame) and cinematography, a Campion staple, conferring a sense of haunting beauty upon the tragic events.