Farsa Diabólica

One Saturday afternoon (not a wet one!) my mother happened to flick over from the sports on one channel to uncover an absolute gem of BRITISH Cinema from the 1960's. A little later I happened to come from my 'office', from where I run my home-based business, into the living room and was utterly transfixed by some of the greatest acting of all time in a British picture, together with a masterpiece of investigating the cinematic possibilities of the British city- and landscape. It's such a shame that the film wasn't a commercial success and that the independent production company behind it folded not long after the film's release. Both Mum and myself were amazed that we'd never even heard of Kim Stanley, who apparently was nominated for an Academy Award for her performance in 'Seance...'. She should have been in more films than she was, but then again that was her choice to go more for theatrical work. I'd recommend this film to anybody and give it top rating.

I remember seeing Seance on a Wet Afternoon, before I was teenager. And then seeing it again five or six years later. It still had the same impact watching the movie as I was young child. If this playing on TV tomorrow, I would watch Seance before any TV show. It is an excellent study of characters in story. This is one the movies made me interested in older films. I did not care if the movie was in black and white or color as long as the film is made well. I enjoy for the mysterious atmosphere the movie is set and creativity that the actors bring to their roles. The plot had been copied many of times on film and TV but never can duplicated. Kim Stanley plays the strong controlling wife who does the seances and Richard Attenborough as her weak husband. If like the Others and Sixth Sense, you might like this film.

Forbes also wrote this one (as he often did). It's hard to find any fault with this movie. You can't get much better than a film, not only written and directed by Forbes, but starring an unforgettable pairing in Kim Stanley and Richard Attenborough. Ms. Stanley didn't make too many movies, but this one is enough to show why she's often thought of as the best stage actress of the 20th century.

Just to tell a small bit of the story, it's about a woman and her husband who earn some money giving séances for people. It's unclear whether the husband, played by Attenborough, actually believes anything supernatural is going on, because as the story progresses, what does become clear is that his wife, played by Stanley, is having, or has already had, a serious break with reality.

A word of warning to those thinking this is a movie about the supernatural given the film's title—it is not, although some may see something of the supernatural in the wife's delusional mode of existence. The film is actually about something entirely different—the kidnapping of a young girl. Very suspensefully done from beginning to end.

The first hour is one of the most riveting pieces of film ever to hit the screen. The pace, the mood, Attenborough and, of course, Kim Stanley! Then, something happens on the second half, it feels rushed, at least, that's what it felt to me. Once that aside, what a treat! Bryan Forbes signed some startling British movies of that period but you hardly hear his name mentioned. I mean, "Whistle Down The Wind", "The Wrong Box", "The L Shapped Room", "King Rat". Here he touches some kind of zenith. I heard that originally, Forbes and producer Richard Attenborough, had toyed with the idea of making the couple a "queer" one. Alec Guinness and Tom Courtenay. As fun as the idea may sound I'm glad they didn't go ahead with that. It would have deprive us of Kim Stanley and of Richard Attenborough in what could be, arguably, his best performance. He made of Billy's weakness a separate entity. Painful, creepy. Stanley is, goes without saying, sublime. Another superlative characterization in her far too brief film gallery. We can actually see what she's feeling and what she's feeling is so all consuming so strong and so fragile that we feel she's about to fall at any moment and we will too, with her. For those of us who love great acting - This is unmissable.

This great, seldom-scene movie stars Kim Stanley as an unbalanced woman who holds seances in her home and concocts a plot to gain celebrity with her so-called "powers". With the help of her husband, she plans to kidnap the daughter of a wealthy couple, then use her "powers"to reveal the girl's whereabouts. As the story unfolds, the audience is shown the reasons behind the woman's emotional problems and the growing inevitability of disaster that her plan holds. Richard Attenborough gives a great performance as he teeters between the desire to fulfill his unhappy wife's scheme and the knowledge that the deed they are doing is wrong. Reccommended for those who want a shiver without the gore. Thought provoking.