The Thirteenth Tale

...not generally a fan of 'ghostly' stories but was curious to see the fine cast of The 13th Tale. It was gripping from the beginning, superb acting, stunningly pretty and horrid little girls, sensational sets and music which really helped keep the concentration - a marvellous production and of course original story. Having been drawn in, I was soon to be flabbergasted when I realised some of it was shot at Duncombe Park where I was at prep. school in the 60's - a first shot of the entrance gates, the drive and steps to the front door I knew at once! - a much loved place by most of us who were lucky enough then to have assembly and put on the Nativity Play in the main Saloon,walk through the doors onto the terrace, build dens around the Yew Walk and around the Temples, play on the same swing and around Father Time, admire the mahogany staircase only for the staff to use, peer down into the Main Hall with its chequerboard floor waiting for parents to arrive, have story time each evening with the Head whilst sitting round her on the floor of her Study, the Library... I was transfixed and quite horrified to see the house as burnt out shell!! How did you do that? overall a magnificent and moving production, just a perfect setting for the story... thank you to Heyman Productions and the BBC

This is really one of my favorites I've seen throughout the year of 2013.

Cinematography 8/10: The cinematography is beautiful. Most of the shots and standpoints in this film were well done.

Characters 7/10: Throughout this film, the characters were well- developed, but not every character was interesting and had no real background.

Plot 9/10: This movie had a very good plot, there wasn't any plot holes from my perspective and it was an intriguing ride.

Cast 8/10: The cast was well-chosen and all had a very good performance. I've always been a fan of Vanessa Redgrave and this performance of hers as Vida Winter was incredibly well done.

Conclusion: This movie is great and I give it an 8.25/10.

I love Gothic. I have been steadily reading my way through the back-catalogue of greats from Le Fanu through Poe, M R James to Will Self. I like not just to read and enjoy, but to carry a story with me forever. For that to happen the story has to get inside of me; it has to creep in slowly under my skin, and then shake me up from the inside. The Thirteenth tale does just that. From the off, the makers employ all the best Gothic themes in order to summon feeling; the grand but degenerate house,wildly baroque gardens,sense-memory flashbacks, costume, unheimlich twins. It adds to the tension with filmic techniques- the pared down narrative,filters, uncanny usage of colour,slow close-ups and misty long-shots. The result is pure feeling. For me, the feeling begins as mystery and a slow sense of disorientation and unreality, but develops through anxiety, into something unnameable strange and completely absorbing. This film is pure Gothic. I feel alarmed, I feel shaky. This film will live with me for a while yet.

Based on a best-selling Gothic novel, THE THIRTEENTH TALE contains all the virtues characteristic of contemporary BBC drama; lavish locations with plenty of exterior shots, ornately decorated interior shots, 'mood' lighting designed to create a spooky atmosphere, and a cast of well- known actors given full opportunity to show off their creative talents. In this particular piece, aging novelist Viola Winter (Vanessa Redgrave) enlists the services of little-known writer Margaret Lea (Olivia Colman) to recount her autobiography, including her Viola's mysterious childhood when her family home (Anglefield House) burned to the ground. However Viola is herself a writer of fiction, so we never quite know whether what she recounts is 'the truth' or not (if the truth exists, of course). Christopher Hampton's screenplay allows for plenty of exchanges between the protagonists, as well as creating a 'hall-of- mirrors' like effect in which nothing is what it seems to be. However the narrative of THE THIRTEENTH TALE does tend to sag; like many BBC dramas, the director James Kent seems too much concerned to create atmosphere through music and location shooting (both interior and exterior), both of which tend to impede the progress of the plot. The denouement, when it comes, is both predictable and un-scary. One is left with the feeling that the story could have been far more effectively recounted in a sixty-minute slot.

Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny DeVito were twins. One inherited all the noble qualities, and the other... didn't. The twins in "The Thirteenth Tale" are rather less amusing. Madeleine Power is brilliant as the nine-year-old girls Emmeline and Adeline (Ella-Rose Wood skilfully doubles). One of these twins (under that cascade of gorgeous red hair) has the makings of a sociopath. You wouldn't want to be governess to this difficult duo, but Hester Barrow (Alexandra Roach) comes from the school of no-nonsense firmness. Also from a school of too clever by half rationality, leading to this "scientific" procedure - which you just know will not end well.

It's English Gothic. There's a whiff, nay, a stench of corruption within the tainted aristocratic blood, yea, in the befouled DNA. So mental instability is always going to be on the menu. The stolid servants (Janet Amsden as The Missus and Robert Pugh as John The Dig) ought to be secure enough - unless they get drawn into the cesspool.

If you want to enjoy this film, you'll need to accept the conventions. Some elements of the story are super-credible, other elements look cliched or artificially engineered. Is dying author Vida Winter (Vanessa Redgrave) trying to absolve some collective guilt by "confessing" to her chosen biographer Margaret Lea (Olivia Colman)? Lea doesn't come across as tough enough to be a professional biographer. But maybe it's Lea's vulnerability that keeps Winter talking, spilling the beans and spilling them in the right order for her fantastical narrative to keep us watching. A movie like this draws you in with its well made beginning; but whether you'll say at the end, "This was time well spent" is not specified on the manufacturer's warranty card.