In a dreary turn-of-the-century town, tantrum-prone teen Angel Deverell (Garai) torments her grocer-mother and frustrates her peers with fantastical inventions about the scandalous lives of lords and ladies.

Her budding bodice-rippers are inspired by the nearby Paradise House, where Angel’s aunt is a servant. Angel refuses to visit in such a lowly capacity, but the mansion represents everything she wants, and believes she deserves, from life.

Finding herself unappreciated by the narrow small-town minds around her, she bombards London publishers with her steamy stories until one (Sam Neill) sees her populist potential and takes her on.

Despite refusing to compromise the slightest detail, even to correct such schoolgirl errors as believing that champagne is opened with a corkscrew, her aspirational novels are an instant hit with the public, bringing fame and fortune enough to appease even Angel’s voracious appetite.

Buying Paradise from it’s now-ruined owners, Angel has achieved everything she ever imagined she wanted, but finds a fresh challenge in handsome, dissolute painter Esme (rapidly rising star Fassbender).

Taking on his infatuated sister Nora as personal secretary, Angel soon wins herself a husband, but even her single-minded determination cannot overcome war. Esme enlists, loses his leg, and ultimately the will to live.

Having finally lost a battle, Angel’s descent is swift, her books fall out of favour and she ends her days an eccentric, forgotten relic.

Director Ozon’s vision of writer Elizabeth Taylor’s (not that one) 1957 novel is undeniably beautiful, boasting a chocolate-box Edwardian England and lavish costumes to make the BBC drama department green with envy.

However, Angel is intended to satirise the feverish melodramas written by the heroine, but by slavishly adhering to their conventions it's more admirable for its style than its substance. Regardless of its dramatic shortcomings, it's worth a look for the spectacle alone.

Ruth Ford