Phone Message Transcript: September 30, 1997
[appearing on Anne's fan phone line]

"It's one or the other, and this is Anne Rice, 1997. The movie I want to recommend tonight is a movie called ANGEL BABY, and it was made in Australia. Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant movie. Apparently it won seven Australian Film Institute awards. I saw it last night on tape, and I have only the scanned version. But it was absolutely fabulous. It was starring John Lynch and Jacqueline McKenzie and it was written and directed by Michael Rymer. It was somebody out of Hollywood who told me about this film, and I'm very glad they did because it is truly incredible. It's about two people who were very, very mentally ill and they stop taking medicine. And so they have experiences which are almost mystical, but which those outside them are naturally going to see as pathological. But the great thing about the film is that it is not about illness, and it's not about medicine, it's not about anything like that. It's about emotion, love, the hearts and souls of these individuals and basically about what they feel, and what they try to accomplish in spite of everything that's that's done to them by nature and by other people, and even by themselves. It's really remarkable. The movie has a magical quality to it. It moves right out of realism, almost immediately, into that magic and sustains it against a very barren inorganic background. Now I've never used that word before and don't think you're listening to a film student or a film teacher, but it is an inorganic background. If you've seen concrete buildings, formica surfaces, plastic, things like that, and almost never see in this movie, water, people, blood, babies, stuff like that. You see people of course, I'm sorry. The people are out of the foreground, of course. But you don't really see organic things except occasionally, and when you see them they're very heightened, they're very beautiful and they connect. And I highly recommend this film. It's out on rental tape now. Do get it. I can't recommend it enough. It's one of those rare jewels from Australia. I mean, it's not rare for it to be from Australia, because we keep getting wonderful films from Australia, but it's a rare jewel in terms of the whole film industry overall. I think it must be a wonderful time to be Australia and to be making films. Australia and New Zealand right now seem to have some kind of courage and faith and conviction that gives them a great strength, a great facility with all of this. And I'm very happy for them. Anyway, ANGEL BABY. I highly recommend it. Take care."