image of person or book cover 3516009878921169727.jpg
Screen cap from promotional trailer
form y separately published work icon An Angel at My Table single work   film/TV  
Adaptation of An Angel at My Table : An Autobiography Janet Frame , 1984 single work autobiography and To the Is-land Janet Frame , 1987 single work autobiography and The Envoy from Mirror City Janet Frame , 1985 single work autobiography
Issue Details: First known date: 1990... 1990 An Angel at My Table
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

Based on the autobiographies of New Zealand author Janet Frame.

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

Alternative title: An Angel at My Table : The Screenplay, from the Three Volume Autobiography of Janet Frame
Form: screenplay
    • Auckland, Auckland (Region), North Island,
      c
      New Zealand,
      c
      Pacific Region,
      :
      Random Century ,
      1990 .
      Extent: 93p.p.
      Description: illus., ports
      ISBN: 1869410742
    • Sydney, New South Wales,: Pandora , 1990 .
      Extent: 93p.p.
      Description: illus.
      ISBN: 0044407432

Works about this Work

Letter Writing and Space for Women’s Self-expression in Janet Frame’s Owls Do Cry and Jane Campion’s An Angel at My Table Hannah Matthews , 2021 single work essay
— Appears in: Life Writing , vol. 18 no. 1 2021; (p. 79-94) Essays in Life Writing 2021; (p. 76-91)

'This essay engages with life writing in Janet Frame’s 1957 novel, Owls Do Cry and Jane Campion’s 1990 film biopic of Frame’s autobiographies, An Angel At My Table. It aims to consider the physical and socio-political constraints on women’s writing, and how these may be deconstructed through non-conventional forms of intellectual exploration. Communication between women is explored in the formats used in both Frame’s novel and Campion’s film. With a primary focus on letter writing, this essay also considers diary entries, published literary work, the film text, and silence as areas of interest. This essay employs the form of letter writing in attempt to explore the medium used by Frame and the characters in Owls Do Cry as an alternative form of intellectual scholarly practice. In doing so, it aims to consider Frame’s literary legacy as a paradigm for academic study, in which women’s varied creative practices can be considered for academic exploration. The letter form also signifies an attempt to recontextualise the letter form, in order to compare the constraints on women’s writing in 1940s and 1950s New Zealand with twenty-first-century concerns about gender equality in academia and creative writing.' (Introduction)

Countering the Eurocentric Gaze? Europe in the Antipodean Filmic Imagination Janine Hauthala , 2020 single work criticism
— Appears in: Antipodes , vol. 34 no. 2 2020; (p. 242-261)
'This article explores how Europe is depicted in contemporary Antipodean films by drawing on the example of An Angel at my Table (1990), Romulus, My Father (2007), Mr. Pip (2012), and Dead Europe (2012). The comparative case study of these cinematic adaptations shows, first, how (British) literature shapes the protagonists' encounter with Europe. Second, the author examines whether the films perpetuate or counter the Eurocentric gaze. She argues that Campion and Roxburgh highlight characters' diasporic longing for, and their catalytic or unhealthy attachment to, Europe as "imaginary homeland." Adamson's adaptation, in turn, decenters Eurocentric visions, while Krawitz's portrayal of Europe as "traumascape" rejects the alleged superiority of an idealized Europe even more forcefully than Tsiolkas's novel does. Of the four films, only Mr. Pip visually engages postcolonial discourses and, at least indirectly, relates to the settler colonial contexts to which all four films belong. Ultimately, the films' shared engagement with Europe broadens the national focus of earlier Antipodean cinema, offering various avenues to rethink identity and belonging beyond the national and the postcolonial.'  (Publication abstract)
An Angel at My Table (Jane Campion, 1990) Isabella McNeill , 2017 single work column
— Appears in: Senses of Cinema , September vol. 84 no. 2017;
An Angel at My Table (1990) : Janet Frame, Jane Campion, and Authorial Control in the Auto/biopic. Alexis Brown , 2016 single work criticism
— Appears in: Journal of New Zealand Literature , vol. 34 no. 1 2016; (p. 103-122, 5)

'What happens when an autobiographical project is taken up by film? How can visual media extend, distort, and reshape the image of the author? Janet Frame was a writer particularly concerned with modes of authorial representation, both visual and writerly. Her posthumous novel In the Memorial Room (2013) describes the writer Harry Gill's tenure of the Watercress-Armstrong Fellowship in Menton, France. At the reception celebrating his arrival in Menton, he is greeted by Connie Watercress, benefactor of the fellowship, her husband Max and their son Michael, a 'handsome richly bearded young man, the perfect stereotype of the 'young writer''. At this reception, the mayor of Menton approaches the foursome to take a photograph with the new Watercress-Armstrong Fellow - and mistakenly extends his hand to Michael. Though the mistake is immediately recognised, and the mayor sheepishly turns to Harry, it is too late - the photographers have already taken their photo, memorialising the event..  (Introduction)

An Angel at My Table Fincina Hopgood , 2011 single work criticism
— Appears in: Making Film and Television Histories : Australia and New Zealand 2011; (p. 189-193)
An Angel at My Table Fincina Hopgood , 2011 single work criticism
— Appears in: Making Film and Television Histories : Australia and New Zealand 2011; (p. 189-193)
An Angel at My Table (1990) : Janet Frame, Jane Campion, and Authorial Control in the Auto/biopic. Alexis Brown , 2016 single work criticism
— Appears in: Journal of New Zealand Literature , vol. 34 no. 1 2016; (p. 103-122, 5)

'What happens when an autobiographical project is taken up by film? How can visual media extend, distort, and reshape the image of the author? Janet Frame was a writer particularly concerned with modes of authorial representation, both visual and writerly. Her posthumous novel In the Memorial Room (2013) describes the writer Harry Gill's tenure of the Watercress-Armstrong Fellowship in Menton, France. At the reception celebrating his arrival in Menton, he is greeted by Connie Watercress, benefactor of the fellowship, her husband Max and their son Michael, a 'handsome richly bearded young man, the perfect stereotype of the 'young writer''. At this reception, the mayor of Menton approaches the foursome to take a photograph with the new Watercress-Armstrong Fellow - and mistakenly extends his hand to Michael. Though the mistake is immediately recognised, and the mayor sheepishly turns to Harry, it is too late - the photographers have already taken their photo, memorialising the event..  (Introduction)

An Angel at My Table (Jane Campion, 1990) Isabella McNeill , 2017 single work column
— Appears in: Senses of Cinema , September vol. 84 no. 2017;
Letter Writing and Space for Women’s Self-expression in Janet Frame’s Owls Do Cry and Jane Campion’s An Angel at My Table Hannah Matthews , 2021 single work essay
— Appears in: Life Writing , vol. 18 no. 1 2021; (p. 79-94) Essays in Life Writing 2021; (p. 76-91)

'This essay engages with life writing in Janet Frame’s 1957 novel, Owls Do Cry and Jane Campion’s 1990 film biopic of Frame’s autobiographies, An Angel At My Table. It aims to consider the physical and socio-political constraints on women’s writing, and how these may be deconstructed through non-conventional forms of intellectual exploration. Communication between women is explored in the formats used in both Frame’s novel and Campion’s film. With a primary focus on letter writing, this essay also considers diary entries, published literary work, the film text, and silence as areas of interest. This essay employs the form of letter writing in attempt to explore the medium used by Frame and the characters in Owls Do Cry as an alternative form of intellectual scholarly practice. In doing so, it aims to consider Frame’s literary legacy as a paradigm for academic study, in which women’s varied creative practices can be considered for academic exploration. The letter form also signifies an attempt to recontextualise the letter form, in order to compare the constraints on women’s writing in 1940s and 1950s New Zealand with twenty-first-century concerns about gender equality in academia and creative writing.' (Introduction)

Countering the Eurocentric Gaze? Europe in the Antipodean Filmic Imagination Janine Hauthala , 2020 single work criticism
— Appears in: Antipodes , vol. 34 no. 2 2020; (p. 242-261)
'This article explores how Europe is depicted in contemporary Antipodean films by drawing on the example of An Angel at my Table (1990), Romulus, My Father (2007), Mr. Pip (2012), and Dead Europe (2012). The comparative case study of these cinematic adaptations shows, first, how (British) literature shapes the protagonists' encounter with Europe. Second, the author examines whether the films perpetuate or counter the Eurocentric gaze. She argues that Campion and Roxburgh highlight characters' diasporic longing for, and their catalytic or unhealthy attachment to, Europe as "imaginary homeland." Adamson's adaptation, in turn, decenters Eurocentric visions, while Krawitz's portrayal of Europe as "traumascape" rejects the alleged superiority of an idealized Europe even more forcefully than Tsiolkas's novel does. Of the four films, only Mr. Pip visually engages postcolonial discourses and, at least indirectly, relates to the settler colonial contexts to which all four films belong. Ultimately, the films' shared engagement with Europe broadens the national focus of earlier Antipodean cinema, offering various avenues to rethink identity and belonging beyond the national and the postcolonial.'  (Publication abstract)
Last amended 30 Aug 2017 08:48:57
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    Pacific Region,
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