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"You have a real talent for writing."
-Janet. - Yes?
Three men from the university to see you.
Ah.
- Hello, Janet. - Evening, Janet.
- Hello,Janet. - Hello.
Uh, Mr. Forrest has been telling me...
that, uh, you haven't been feeling all that well lately...
and, well, we thought that you might like a little rest.
Oh. N-No, I'm fine now, thank you.
Well, i-it wouldn't be for long. Just, uh -
Well, just have a little rest and let us look after you for a while.
Really, I'm all right.
John would come to visit you. Wouldn't you, John?
Of course I would, yeah.
In hospital?
Well, yes, we think it would be best for you.
- Do you think so? - I do.
Come on, Nini.
I can't go home.
- Well, you can't stay here. - No, I don't want to stay here.
Well, where can you go?
Look, after a holiday at home, you'll be as good as new.
Go away!
- She's usually such a happy girl. - Go away!
We'd better go.
Perhaps she just needs a little more rest.
- I had a little dog - - And his name was - - Spot.
- I had a little dog - - And his name was -
- Spot. - I had a little dog -
- And his name was - - Spot.
- I had a little dog, and his name was - - Spot.
- I had a little dog - - And his name was -
- Spot. - I had a little dog -
- And his name was - - Spot.
Here we go again.
Come back!
Here we go. Here we go.
Pits.
I 've got schizophrenia.
What's that?
"Dementia praecox, otherwise known as schizophrenia.
"A gradual deterioration of the mind...
with no cure."
Janet.
I've talked to a Mrs. Chandler. in Christchurch about your case.
She's very interested in you.
I think you'll like her too.
Do you mean I should go and see her?
I think you should.
I've shown your stories and poems to Denis Glover of Caxton.
He's very impressed.
You know, Janet, when I think of you, I think of van Gogh, Hugo Wolf.
Lots of artists have suffered from schizophrenia.
Bruddie?
You should be the one going, Nini, not me.
Oh, no. I couldn't.
You'd be the best one.
Whoever goes, you've got to make sure Mum has a lovely trip.
- It's most of my money!
- No, it's not. It's mostly Janet's money. - Yeah.
- No, it's not. I worked for it. - I earn more money than you do.
Work for it? Huh.
Oh, dear, dear, dear. I don't know.
-What don't you know?
Put your feet up.
- I'm all right. - Come on.
There. You're on holidays, Mum.
Stop worrying. Poor old trotters.
- It's mine!
Hello?
Yeah.
Yeah. Okay.
It's Isabel.
She drowned in Picton Harbour.
It's to stop her from smelling.
Bruddie.
Mum, your hair - it's white.
- Oh, Curly!
A second one taken.
We just don't know what to say, but call on us if you want any help.
- We're here. We're sorry we didn't come to the church. - Is Janet coming out?
We knew you had closer family and friends...
and we kept in the background for that reason.
Why don't you come out, Nini?
I comforted myself with writing...
yet I could not stay at Willowglen...
nor was there any escape from the horror of my decayed teeth.
Hello. Come in.
- I'm Janet Frame. - Oh.
John Forrest wrote to me about you.
Will you help me with my teeth?
Your teeth? I don't understand.
Oh, dear.
I'm afraid you're gonna have to have those out.
Will you come with me?
Well, yes, I could.
After you've had your teeth seen to...
I'd like you to go to Sunnyside Hospital.
They have a new treatment there which appears to be successful.
Is it curable?
With this new treatment, yes, I think it may be.
- Nurse?
You're a newie, aren't you?
Come on. Legs up. That's the way. Get yourself comfy.
- Where are your teeth? - I've just had them pulled out.
Ooh.
- Have you eaten today?
Oh! Oops-a-day.
No! There's God! There's God!
- That's a good girl. - There's God -
-All right, Doctor.
Good morning. Well, then, we know what this is all about.
Lie down. That's all right.
Legs down. Legs down.
- Nice and calm. - Matron.
Yes. Close your eyes. Ready, Doctor?
Over the next eightyears...
I received more than 200 applications of electric shock treatment...
each one equivalent in fear. to an execution.
Hurry up!
- On the go. - Come on. Hurry.
Are you all right?
I'm all right.
- Hurry up. - I don't want to go while they're watching.
There's no one watching!
Come on, go!
- Miss Educated! - Yeah.
- There you are.
Blue smoke
Goes drifting by
Into the deep blue sky
When I think of home
I sadly sigh
Oh, I can see you there
With loving tears in your eyes
As we fondly said
Our last good-byes
And as I sailed away
With a longing to stay
- I promised to be true
- I've got your books. - Good work,Janet.
-Jolly good work. - They've published them.
- Where's my photograph? - That's not the important thing.
- Wh-Where's my photograph? - The important thing is that you're an author.
What do I do?
You sign it here...
on the inside front page.
- Is that what you do? - Mmm.
Good. Next one.
They'll be worth a fortune one day,Janet.
Good.
Sit down.
We're putting you down for that new operation.
What new operation?
You're going to have a leukotomy.
There's no need to be frightened.
It'll do you the world of good.
Do I have to have one?
It's not a question of"have to." It's a question of what's best.
Your mother has agreed. She signed the papers.
What do you think?
Do you think they'll get out?
I think once you're here, you never get out.
Fear... no... more...
the heat...
of the sun...
nor the furious...
winter's...
rages.
Now thy...
worldly... task...
is done.
Oh. Hello.
-Janet, isn't it? - Dr. Palmer, what do you think?
- About the prize? - No. About the leukotomy.
You've won the Hubert Church Award...
for your book of short stories, The Lagoon.
Oh. I'm not going to have the operation?
No.
I think you should stay in hospital a little longer....
until you're more confident and stronger..
And then we'll see about getting you home.
Seacliff Station, please.
I don't want you to leave home again ever.
Okay, chief.
- You're not going back to that nuthouse. - With all those loonies?
Aw, Dad.
It's my private rest home you're talking about.
Why don't you eat with us?
Why don't you live in your own house?
Have you got any children?
Boys, come on. Leave Auntie Janet alone, please.
- Come have your tea. - All right.
Come on.
Can you see something out the window? Out.
Frank Sargeson, the writer, lives around here in an old bach.
He came to visit me. He heard I was your sister.
- He asked if you'd like to go and see him. - We could drop in now.
No! I don't know him.
He's not home.
- Hello. - You're Janet Frame?
Come in. Come in.
We'll come back later.
Why don't you come and live here?
There's a bed and desk in the hut out back already set up.
Well, you can't write living in suburbia...
amongst the nappies and the bourgeois life.
But I have to find a job.
Why?
You're a writer.
They've refused me the sickness benefit.
Oh, have they?
After all those years in hospital, they can't do that.
Look, I've got a good friend who's a doctor.
He'll fix you up with a benefit. Of course he will.
Would you like to come and look?
"It was a sin...
"to have watched Aunt Nettie putting on her face...
- "and it was worse - - No, don't.
- "it was worse for her, I suppose... - Frank!
"because now we knew she had another face...
- "and had another smile to it. - Frank!
"We'd found her out like a thief.
She kept blushing."
Not bad.
Bit... Dylan Thomas-ish.
Don't worry I fit comes back. It's only your first try.
Just remember, Waldo...
there's always another publisher.
- Aha!Maiden bearing gramophone. - All right.
I brought these records.
- Are you pouring, Frank?
"We had fed the heart on fantasies.
"The heart's grown brutal from the fare.
"More substance in our enmities than in our love.
"Oh, honey bees, come build in the empty house...
of a stare."
That's wonderful.
I've only read his earlier works.
"Tread softly because you tread on my dreams"?
"I went out to the hazel wood because a fire was in my head."
- "Till the moon has taken flight. - KarI!
- "To and fro we leap... - Shh.
- "and chase the frothy bubbles. - You're shouting.
"While the world is full of troubles...
- "come away, oh, human child... - Shh.
"to the waters and the wild...
"with a fairy hand in hand.
- "Cause the world's more full of weeping... - Shh.
than you can understand. "
Frank!
- Frank?
First up.
I can't believe it.
Well, not everyone's that lucky, Waldo...
not on their first try.
Something must have clicked with them.
- Well, congratulations.
- It's amazing.
- To Frank, the next step was obvious.
I needed to broaden my experience.
He organized my application for a literary grant to travel overseas.
I knew that if I stayed, there would be no second chance for my survival.
So, you're off to the old country, eh?
Good on you, girl. Good on you.
Mr. Frame.
This is Frank Sargeson.
My father.
Oh, you've got a very clever daughter there, Mr. Frame.
Thank you.
Bye-bye.
Bon voyage.
Time and chance are but a tide
Ha ha, the wooing o'it
Slighted love is sair to bide
Ha ha, the wooing o'it
"Shall I like a fool," quoth he
For a haughty hizzie die
She may go to France for me
Ha ha, the wooing o'it
- What happened to you two?
Ah, we've just been, uh, looking around.
What have you been up to?
- Isn't it absolutely gorgeous?
Can I help you?
Oh, no, thank you.
Was that the one in the white tuxedo?
Oh, I love it. What's his name?
We should go then.
Hello. I'm Janet Frame.
I wrote and reserved a room.
Frame.
No, I have no "Frame."
- But I wrote. - No, we've had no letter from you.
- But I'm all the way from New Zealand. - We have guests staying here from all over the world.
Have you no friends in London?
None.
Why don't you try the Y.W.C.A.?.
Well, I hope you won't be here for the winter.
We had a woman die of pneumonia in one of these rooms.
That one.
We had a crown prince of Europe in this one last year.
There.
You can call me Patrick.
So, what you doin' in London, Janet?
Oh, I'm here on a literary grant.
A literary grant?
But I'm not going to stay in London for very long.
I'm going to go to Spain.
It's cheaper there.
- You're not going on your own? - Yes.
Well, you'll be in danger in a foreign place like that, Janet.
I'll look after you while you're in London...
but you mustn't go to the continent on your own.
By the way, are you fancy-free?
Yes, I'm fancy-free.
Then watch out for the blacks. They're everywhere in London.
I don't think that someone should be referred to by the color of their skin.
You wait and see.
Oh. Well.
Come on.
Thank you.
Here we are. Smells good. Here you go.
- Now, this is paella, Janet. - Oh, yes, the Spanish dish.
I learnt to make it when I was living there.
- What were you doing in Spain? - Oh, I'm an artist, so I lived up there for a while and worked.
- Katie? - Yes?
Why don't you write to Colin and tell him Janet's going to Ibiza?
Yeah, well, definitely. Colin's a really nice guy.
In fact, he'll show you around. In fact, he's gorgeous.
So, uh, what do you write, Janet?
- Oh, um, poetry and fiction. - Mm-hmm.
Some short stories, and I've written a novel.
- Have you had anything published? - Yes.
- For which magazine? - Um, no. The short stories are in a book.
- A book? - The novel's been published.
- You mean you've published a book? - Well done, Janet. Excellent!
In fact, I've never met anybody who's published a book before.
Well, I mean, somebody like us. That's great.
Well, it's only in New Zealand.
- Still, it's a book, Janet. - Who's your publisher?
Caxton Press for the short stories...
and Pegasus for the novel.
Well, I've chosen my publisher.
Yes, we know, Paul. Faber.
- Faber & Faber. - To Faber & Faber.
You didn't come home last night,Janet.
No, I missed the bus. It was too late.
Come in. Come in.
Where'd you stay?
With some new friends.
Who are these new friends?
Writers and painters. Artists.
That's not the type for you,Janet.
They hang around and do no work.
And what about their morals?
All that... muckin' in together.
I'm a writer too, Patrick.
For the moment, maybe...
but then when you come back from Spain, we'll get you a real job.
We'll look to our future then.
This is for you.
You can go to France with me.
Ha ha, the wooing o'it
My bags. My baggage. It's not here.
No, they're not here.
Your bags are in Paris. In Paris.
The ticket for leaving bags is in Paris, not for coming to Spain.
You understand me? Your bags are in Paris.
Colin?
Oh. Katie described your hair.
- Where's your luggage? - I'm traveling light.
Oh, that's easy then. Come on.
- Okay then. It's fixed up. - Thank you.
There's a room free. You said you wanted to stay a couple of nights, yeah?
Well, that's fine. Okay. See you around.
Thank you.
"Thou who didst waken from his summer dreams...
"the blue Mediterranean where he lay...
"and saw in sleep...
"old palaces and towers...
quivering within the wave's intenser day."
One day soon I would walk around the harbor road...
to the opposite shore, where the real city lay...
that I knew only as the city in the sea.
- Hello again. - Musicians and motorbikes.
Interesting combo.
What was she like anyway? Be a bit more careful, that's all.
- Hello. - Sarah.
Hello.
My luggage is coming. They sent it by sea instead of rail.
And, um, I found a place to stay.
Good.
Well, it has a view of the water and the town.
No, I mean the town and the water.
Well, bye-bye.
Oh! Hold on.
That's the woman. Remember, the one I met from the ferry the other day?
- Without any luggage. - Katie's friend or something.
It's remarkable. I didn't think there were people like that.
She's very, very nervous. Very nervous.
How did Sarah look?
Oh.
Uh, carne. Carne.
Uh -
- Sн. Sн.
Mmm.
No, no.
- No hombre. - No, no, no, no, no.
Oh! Yeah, my sister made me - mi hermana.
Made it from a curtain. Uh, cortina.
I was approved of because I was not a tourist.
I was not American.
I was an industrious escritora...
who did not have foreign friends.
A tree.
I felt sick with disappointment and a sense ofbetrayal...
for I believed I had rented the entire house.
I had looked on Number 6 Ignacio Riquere as my place...
not to be shared with a foreigner. who spoke English.
Where do you get your money changed, Janet?
Oh, I changed it here when I arrived...
at the bank.
All of it? You shouldn't have done that.
I get my American scholarship money changed in Andorra.
There's where the cheap money market is.
"Cheap money"?
A woman devil?
She sleeps in his bed.
Thank God you not like her.
I longed to be as full of secrets as she seemed to be...
that would prompt a man to discover them.
But for so long, I had blocked all exits and entrances...
that I felt I was as sexless as a block of wood.
- Hi,Janet. These are my friends.
Dora and Bernard.
- Hello, Dora. - Hi, Janet.
- Hello, Bernard. - It's Bernard's birthday.
- Would you like to join us for a glass of wine? - Oh, no, thank you, Edwin. I was just going.
- Hey, I 'd like you to. - Dora studies flute in Paris.
- You been to Paris, Janet? - Oh, just one night, really, on my way here.
Oh, you need more than a day in Paris.
- Hey. W.B. - To Bernard.
- Thirty-fourth year to heaven. - I don't think heaven's got much to do with it.
What do you know about heaven, Edwin? Huh? Huh?
- Cincinnati last year, big guy. - Don't talk Cincinnati.
Oh,yeah?
Hey, are you gonna show me your work?
Oh,yeah, I've been working.
-Janet. - Oh!
Hi. Good morning.
- Hello. - How are you?
Good.
Uh-huh!
Byron.
So, uh,you wanna go walking?
I'll tell you one thing. I could not work this morning.
Um, what sort of work do you do?
Well, back home I work as a history professor...
but I'm really a poet.
A poet.
Hey, come on. Edwin tells me you're a published author.
- But, ah, what about Auden? - Oh, yes.
"Follow, poet, follow right to the bottom of the night."
- Yeah. Right. - "With your unconstraining voice...
still persuade us to rejoice."
Oh, and - The Kipling.
Kipling. Do you know "Gunga Din"?
What about Yeats?
Yeah. But how does "Gunga Din" start?
Now, I know that one. Uh -
- I have to go. - Yeah, I know.
I know.
Well, good morning.
I brought some breakfast.
Mmm. Uh -
Just let me read you this first, okay? Uh, I wrote it this morning.
You know that time just after waking? It's when I'm at my most creative.
Now, it's just a first draft.
"Spring." "Spring in all its lightness.
Glad brightness of blue-domed day."
I had "blue-roofed," but I changed it.
"Blue-domed day.
"Heart-holding hills of Ohio...
"where memory stretches like miles and s -
spring renews its promise like the first-spoken word."
- Do you like it? - Hmm.
It must be lovely.
Spring in Ohio.
Blue-do - Did you like blue-domed?
- Oh, beautiful!
Do it again.
Is the American rich?
I don't know. Maybe.
Bernard, I want to show you something that Dora can do.
She can kiss and play the stick game at the same time.
- Watch this. - All right, all right.
You think that is something? You think that is something?
- That's something. - I want you to see something.
My girl, who can play the Maori stick game from New Zealand...
can also drink wine and kiss at the same time.
- She can chug at the same time? - Chug-a-lug.
Chug, chug, chug.
Look at that. Now, that is the sort -
You're always showing off, Bernard. I'm sick of it.
I'm always showing off? Come on! En garde!
- You always go too far!
Someone get this guy off me.
I haven't heard your typewriter for weeks. You're not writing, are you?
I'm taking a break.
I hope you know what you're doing.
- Of course I do. - Okay.
Well, I guess this is my last week.
Oh, come on. You knew I was going.
No.
Well, I have to get back, prepare for next term and so on.
God knows, I don't want to go.
I didn't realize it was next week.
Hey, listen. Look. No, no, no. Listen to me.
I've had a great summer.
I really mean that.
I'm gonna miss you.
Huh?
Hmm?
Francesca. Senorita Janetta - is she home?
Look, I love you too.
- Janet?
-Janet? Are you there?
Uh, the ferry goes at midday.
Janet?
I'd really like to say good-bye.
Janetta?
These Americans, they spoil everything.
Even the light they make dark.
True romance, indeed.
So much for poetry and music.
I was beginning to suspect that I might be pregnant.
Here.
Here. What you got in here?
I managed to get you a room in the main house...
next to mine.
Oh, we've got a new landlady.
She's a real character. Tip-top.
She likes to be called Ma.
By the way...
I trust you're still fancy-free.
Great. Come on then!
I've got some tea on.
It's the bus! Janet! Where are you?
You don't want to spend your time writing.
There's no money in it.
It's all right for a holiday...
but nothin' else.
Not for permanent.
What about Peek Freans?
- Peek Freans? - Yeah!
You could work in the office there.
Yeah!
Although I had not wanted the baby...
I had sometimes imagined a boy with Bernard's laugh...
or a girl with his eyes.
So nice to have a mature applicant.
We have so many young ones.
Any major illnesses?
No.
- Uh, any operations? - No.
- Psychiatric treatment? - Yes.
I spent some time in hospital in New Zealand.
How long is "some time"?
Eight years.
How could you possibly think of being a nurse?
What was the diagnosis?
- Schizophrenia. - I'm sorry.
No.
It's out of the question.
I felt as if all the griefs I had ever known...
were beginning to surface within me.
In fear and despair for my life...
I needed answers to the questions I still asked myself about my history.
I knew that talk ofsuicide must always be taken seriously.
Such talk came readily to me as a shortcut to ensure action.
I was admitted as a voluntary patient.
Finally it was concluded that I had never suffered from schizophrenia.
At first the tr.uth seemed mor.e ter.r.ifying than the lie.
How could I now ask for help when there was nothing wrong with me?
You know the problems you've been experiencing...
are a direct result of all those years in hospital.
You can't undo that quickly.
I'm here whenever you need me...
but, I think for a start, once a week.
Once a week. All right.
Mmm. And I want you to write about your time spent in hospital in New Zealand.
It'll help give you a clearer view to the future.
- But I have to find a job. - Don't have to worry about that.
You'll get National Assistance.
If anyone tells you to get out and mix...
and you don't want to...
don't.
- Have you read it? - Yes, I have.
And I'm sure that getting that time out of your system will be good for you.
But as a book, do you like it?
I told you, I 'm not a literary chap.
Have you thought of getting an agent?
- I already have one. - What did he say?
- I wanted you to read it first. - That's good.
Now I have, take it to him, get his opinion.
I'm going to meet my publisher tomorrow.
Ooh! Why don't I make a hair appointment for you?
Oh, no. Nothing works. I've tried.
I'm sure they could do something with it.
Granted, your books have had good reviews.
Some very good.
But what I want you to do now is write a best seller.
When Wanda Lyons comes to see me, do you know how she comes?
She comes in a Rolls-Royce.
You are a better writer than Wanda.
Best seller.
Study them. They'll give you the form.
- Where is it you're living? - Camberwell.
Camberwell is a wasteland.
I'll make you an offer. I'll give you an apartment.
Give me?
Yes, I'd like you to write your next book in there.
Uh - I don't know. I'll have to see.
Also, I've got some people who'd like to meet you.
And don't forget.
Next time you come in a Rolls-Royce.
There. These should fit you as well.
Lovely. Now, I'll send Columba for your wet things.
Oh, I loved your last book. It was just absolutely marvelous.
- Take your time. - Thank you.
- You enjoyed the book then? - Oh,yes.
She's an interesting new author..
Probably won't sell. It probably won't be a best seller..
We won't lose anything on it.
Janet Frame, Alan and Ruth Sillitoe.
- Pleased to meet you at last. - I 'll get you a drink.
- Hello. -Janet, welcome.
Janet, do make yourself comfortable. Sit down, please.
I loved your Faces in the Water..
It's powerful stuff. Very true.
Thank you.
I, um - I enjoyed your book too.
The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner..
I 'm glad.
Here you are,Janet.
Thank you.
Janet's in our Knightsbridge apartment at the moment...
writing her new book.
Yes.
I am.
Dear Janet...
I wish there was a way to break this news more gently.
Dad is dead.
He was cycling to work on the North Road when he collapsed and died later in hospital.
Poor Dad. He hasn 't properly cared for himself since Mum died.
Bruddie says the house is a rubbish heap.
Miss Frame?
Ken Bowker from the local paper, Miss Frame.
Can we come up?
Yes.
Sorry to disturb you. We wanted to beat the Dunedin papers to it.
- To what? - Your story.
Can you bend your knees?
Can we have one sitting, Miss Frame?
Sitting.
Um - Like this?
That's good.
Come on, baby
Let's do the twist
Come on, baby
Let's do the twist
- Pamela, come to bed, please? - Take me by my little hand
And go like this
- Coffee? - Uh, no thanks,June.
- See you tomorrow then. - Night-night.
- Ooh, yeah
Just like this
Come on, little girl
And do the twist
My daddy is sleepin'
And my mama ain't around
Yes, Daddy's just sleepin'
And Mama ain't around
Yeah, now twist
Girl, baby, twist
Ooh, yeah
Just like this
Come on, little miss
And do the twist
Hush, hush, hush.
The grass and the wind...
and the fir...
and the sea are saying...
hush...
hush.
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