Fotografando Fadas

If you have cable and the SciFi Channel, you may have had the

pleasure of catching this little gem. I kept seeing it in parts and

even in the little snippets, it drew me in and had such a haunting

quality. It was on the other night and I just sat and watched it all the

way through and despite the fact that I'd seen some scenes

before, it still held such a wonderful presence. It's hard to really

describe the movie -- part love story, part fantasy, with a little bit of

the Big Question over exactly what the afterlife is. The

cinematography is absolutely picturesque, almost like watching a

Merchant Ivory production, but with a bit of fairy magic thrown in.

Ben Kingsley is an interesting addition to the cast. I wish there

was more characterization done on all the main roles. You get a

sense of where everyone comes from in terms of motivation, but

more background would have made for a richer film. The pace is

sometimes inconsistent, moving quickly in the beginning, then

slowing, then speeding up again. But the film's dry English wit

makes for enjoyable moments of irreverence. It's still just an

overall beautiful film. Very bittersweet and heartbreaking in

moments. The end is shot with such care and emotion. As

fantastic as the premise is, the heart of the movie is something

everyone can understand -- the loss of a loved one and the chance

to rekindle a spirit burdened with sorrow. A funny bit of irony -- the

actor who played Watson in the BBC Sherlock Holmes series is in

this movie and he plays (har har har) Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

Along with other great English fantasy films like The Company of Wolves, Things to Come, The Devil Rides Out and Jonathan Millers's BBC-filmed production of Alice in Wonderland, this is an intelligent and complex production, miles away in mood and concern from the typical American product. In a film that reminds one of his father Robert's The Asphyx, (as it also involves the attempt to film the supernatural by nineteenth century photographers) Toby Stephens is ideal as the intense, mourning photographer Castle, haunted by the abrupt death of his wife.

The central concern of the film, that of seeing, or not seeing (or perhaps more perhaps *comprehending*, or not - is established in the opening shot of the film: the blurred face of Castle alone in the group photograph he takes of his wife and others. In an image which anticipates those of the fairies later on, he is the one blurred, here the 'ghost' on his film. Appropriately, in a film full of echoes and symbols, this long shot out from Castle's wife's iris recalls his later, obsessive, photographic enlargement of another eye: that of one of the girls photographed with fairies.

The death of his wife then reduces Castle further, through grief and shock, to a state almost like that of a somnambulist. He walks through life, hovering between the shades, oblivious to fear and the concerns of the real world - as evidenced by the unexploded bomb he encounters without any sense of danger, ticking like the time piece he keeps to remember his wife. Castle doesn't care. He wants to die - a sense of foreboding which stays with the viewer from the beginning to the end of the film. He even 'photographs the dead' in his studio, witnessed by his work for the soldier's parents. Even when a new sexual relationship becomes a possibility, later in the film, he cannot rejoin this aspect of life though spiritual malaise.

This thread is continued later in the scene later where Castle enters the church to hear a sermon by the bereaved Kingsley. Earlier that morning he has taken the flower-drug and has 'died' watching the fairies. Now he appears, bloodied like a victim in Macbeth, as the pale ghost at the ceremony..

Castle's attempt to photograph fairies, spirits who hover between life and death, is obviously an attempt to capture something back from the spirit world that has captured his wife. Such is the delicacy and subtlety of the films structure and symbolism, however, that at the end one could feasibly argue that Castle actually died with his wife on the mountain and - rather like in The Occurrence At Owl Bridge Creek - what has happened since the opening scenes has just been the dream of a dying man!

Performances are generally excellent (although Ben Kingsley's wig and stare are slightly disconcerting). Those who found the actual fairies disappointing in effect were perhaps expecting something grander. Some of Castle's hallucinations reminded me of Jacob's Ladder and Kingsley's demise of the killer's suicide in Peeping Tom.

As a last instance of the film's care with presentation and sophistication, one may take the music. The chief elements that reoccur are a sombre dirge like bass-motif and a light waltz. Only at the end of the film does recognise that the bass-motif is an altered element of the famous Beethoven slow movement which plays throughout the last few scenes. Like Castle himself, it is transfigured - or 'completed' by events.

A darker, more metaphysical take on FAIRY TALE: A TRUE STORY which came out also in 1997. Where FT is suitable for older kids, this one certainly is not. This film features many of the same characters as FT, including Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, two cute little girls, and the Theosophical Society, and theme, we are taken on a very dark journey that explores use of halluciongenic plants as a way to view the fairy folk. There are no fairy tale happy endings here.

Go ahead and rent this film and FT. Let your kids enjoy FT, and after you tuck them into bed, watch PF and spend the rest of your evening comparing and contrasting the surprisingly similar and strikingly different films..

What a shame that this movie came out around the same time as the *other* fairy movie. This is decidedly NOT for children. It's a lovely, dreamy, haunting, and sometimes erotic story about love and loss. The performances are fine, and the cinematography is often stunning. A high concept action flick, it isn't. It's often slow with lingering, seemingly meaningless static shots. And don't go in expecting anything cute or cuddly. Even the requisite children are a bit off-putting. But it's well worth sitting through, especially for the last few minutes of the movies, which had me in tears.

I was up late one night and this was playing on the Sci-fi channel. I happen to have a fascination with fairies so I figured this would be an interesting film. Indeed I was right The first film I saw pertaining to the story of two young girls photographing fairies was FairyTale: A True Story which was cute but I constantly found myself yawning and wondering when it would end. Photographing Fairies is also about the two girls capturing a fairy in a photograph, but instead of focusing on them the story really revolves around Charles Castle. Toby Stephens (whom most of us know from Die Another Day) plays Castle, a tormented photographer that refuses to do weddings because of a loss he suffered after only one day of being married. He sets out to find the truth, if fairies really do exist, and along the way he ends up discovering a world so precious and sacred that he'd do anything to keep it safe from harm. 8/10