An Angel at My Table (Jane Campion, 1990)
Dictated by oneaprildayIt fills me with relief to at long last have watched this. I'd put it off for years, despite its appearance on a half dozen different watchlists I keep. During that time of procrastination, I built the film up in my head as something very arty and poetic and delicate, and it's not really those things at all. It's actually a surprising standard period piece bio-pic in the 'portrait of the young artist' genre. It's been a long while since I've watched
My Left Foot from the previous year, but I would guess that'd be a pretty perfect double feature — maybe too perfect, in fact, with the films feeling almost redundant of each other.
Until listening to the audio commentary afterwards, I didn't realize that
An Angel at My Table was intended more as a tv mini-series than a feature film. The cinematographer even framed with both formats in mind but favored the 4:3 composition when push came to shove. That backstory explains away a few qualms I had with the movie, both with its photography and with the rhythms of its screenplay. The straightforward presentation of so many coming-of-age tropes somehow feels more at home within the confines of a television set as opposed to the cinema. And it becomes more understandable why the filmmakers didn't include four times as many landscape shots with Janet's mop of red hair contrasting wonderfully with every background.
My favorite aspect of the film, by far, is the way it captures the sometimes extreme vulnerability that can come with shyness and social anxiety. Kerry Fox's performance kept me on edge with worry, like two hours spent watching someone using a wobbly ladder. Her vacant and darting looks drained me of empathy, to the point where I actually resented having to endure her time in the asylum. I thought I might have to turn off the film altogether if the script subjected her to a sexual assault. But it's worth it for the smile that follows the words, "If anyone tells you to get out and mix, and you don't want to— don't."
Grade: B-
Up next:
Wassup Rockers (dictated by ˇKeith!)
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