The Thirteenth Tale

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.

'The Thirteenth Tale', a new BBC drama, tells the story of madness in an upper class family. There's a twist in the tale, but finding a way to convey it critically maims the dramatic structure: the story is told, entirely in hindsight, in a way that kills engagement, promoting the mundane story of the telling into the foreground over the potentially more interesting story that's actually being told. One can also note that this is the sort of tale where, however neglected or crazy its young protagonists are supposed to be, they never fail to look anything but ravishing. I found it psychologically unconvincing and essentially dull.

Director James Kent has a sensitive touch that deserves recognition and praise in this age of formulaic CGI films where character is more often than not ignored, or simply mass-produced to wooden specifications.

The film's curious title, THE THIRTEEN TALE, refers to a book of just 12 tales. The 13th tale amounts to the narrative that its dying author - superbly portrayed by Vanessa Redgrave - is conveying to a contracted biographer, intelligently played by Janet Amsden. The author's name I could not narrow down to Adeline or Emmeline because of the strange, almost transmutable relation between the twin sisters. However, one can reasonably assume that the 13th and final is the tale written by Amsden, who reveals that she too had a twin sister who died knocked down by a car, a death for which she blames herself. Thus, Redgrave and Amsden in a sense become spiritual twins, too, and that final tale is the result of their collaboration which starts edgily but ends on a tender, friendly note.

This TV film largely shot in a decaying manor house that still reflects past grandeur has the quality of Gothic vision and contained horror interlaced with credible, if deliberately evasive, characterization. Bedridden Redgrave, taking liquid morphine to relieve constant physical pain - to add to the pain of losing her sister(s) - narrates in a rather dettached manner, admitting that she physically beat up her sister but could not tell why.

Thus, she leaves her biographer with some interpretative loose ends that the latter supposedly weaves together into THE THIRTEENTH TALE.

Exquisite cinematography by Jean-Philippe Gossart, fittingly restrained musical score, sharp yet touching screenplay by Diane Setterfield off the novel by Christopher Hampton.

Definite must-see. 8/10.

This film got positive reviews when it was screened around the Christmas period last year, however I sat on it for ages since I was conscious that being a good drama around that time of year doesn't always translate into it being a good drama in and of itself. The ghostly tale of death and mystery is told by an older woman approaching her own death to a younger woman commissioned to write her story – it is a standard setup and from here the story is told across many years in a patient and reasonably engaging manner. Indeed, the telling of the tale is where the film's strengths lie because it is undeniably a well crafted affair. The casting, the locations, the production values and the general maturity of the whole film are all such that it feels much better than it actually is. Suffice to say I can understand why it went down quite well at the end of the festive period, because it does stand out as a classy and adult affair, in contrast to the lighter entertainment fare that would have dominated the previous week or so.

I did find it pretty good thanks to this, with a steady approach and decent tone, but yet I never really got drawn into it in the way I would have liked for a serious drama and well-told story. There are a few moments of suspense and chills here, but generally it doesn't build into anything bigger or more dramatic – the same steady approach that helps to found it, also undoes it in this regard. It has its merits and there is a certain satisfaction to it but it never really gets beyond the quality of its build to become something where you don't see the craftsmanship because of how strong the actual story is.

The cast is part of that quality build and I did enjoy both Colman and Redgrave; the rest of the cast also has good quality turns – although Game of Thrones fans may find some of the casting a bit distracting! Direction and design of the film is of a high quality as I say – it looks good and feels weighty throughout. Shame that the delivery of the material didn't build better and didn't provide more in the way of chills and emotions. Perhaps it was too much going on in the small space available (with a couple of stories here) but it does feel lacking as a whole, even if the quality of the build is enjoyable to see.