MovieChat Forums > Photographing Fairies (1997) Discussion > A flawed work - needs serious editing

A flawed work - needs serious editing

posted 17 years ago by Piers1
8 replies | jump to latest

This film focused on some profound themes and had some good acting in it esp. Ben Kingsley whose aggressively-defensive vicar characterised the subjectivity of faith-based religion and belief systems.

One scene discredited the film for myself and some friends (one of whom was a puppeteer and fantasy/folkloric film maker): this was the part where the vicar chops the tree down and burns it. Okay, in fantasy films there has to be some extension of credulity, but when one of the fairies was burnt by the flames (just-felled lumber would never burn btw) and plummeted wailing with a smoke trail behind like a WW2 fighter plane, we could only laugh. Thereafter, the film never regained the highground. It had become risible chiefly because of the carelessness in the scripting/editing of it, and the fairies had become rather silly, vain creatures with moth-like intelligence and zero intuition.

I feel if that scene was given some serious revision, it would stand as a thought-provoking piece of fantasy. Fantasy film, as much as any other category, needs to maintain a measure of conceptual integrity. If this is compromised, then, to reference the film, the reels may as well be thrown onto a bonfire.

[–] egads 17 years ago

Flaming fairies is the LEAST problematic strain of credulity in that scene -- I very much like this film, but having the vicar single-handedly fell, log, and strip the limbs of a tree that size in a matter of a few hours brought down my suspension of disbelief crashing to the ground faster than a ....

[–] objviewer 16 years ago

Yeah, maybe the vicar had superhuman strength. How about the scene where they jog over the log, and the vicar holds a dangling man by the wrist, and, without even breathing heavy, calmly questions him; then pulls him up like he's lifting a chihauhau.
But I did really like this movie.

[–] 16 years ago

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[–] HersiliaS 11 years ago

Would it really change so much if we saw that the vicar invited his fellow villagers to help him with the tree?

I don't think that there is much sense in looking for realistic explanations in a movie that quite clearly is metaphorical from its onset, and reality is mixed with fantasy all the time. I'm not even sure if what we see after Castle is treated in Switzerland is real. During the war he behaves like someone who plays with death, as if he was unreal and half-alive.

Anyway, for me the vicar is Castle's devil, his antagonist in the most primordial sense: they have different ideas of heaven/hell, unacceptable for each other, and the vicar sets on destroying Castle, so the whole scene is metaphorical. Both die in the end and face their beliefs. We don't know what happens to the vicar, because he's not the focus of the story, but possibly he also reaches his imagined heaven.

And if all this is a fairyland, then the vicar can be supernaturally strong, can't he? I admit that I reflected on his felling the tree so easily, but it did not spoil the story for me, it fitted it all right.

[–] lulupalooza 12 years ago

I'm with all of you! Single-handedly taking down that enormous tree with an axe in a few hours? Fairies that hang around the fire to crash and burn (or vice versa)? From there on, it wasn't as enjoyable for me.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rbhrz1-4hN4

[–] wmtwilson 17 years ago

I loved the film for many reasons, but also winced at the improbability of the vicar (or a group of lumberjack vicars for that matter) felling that monstous tree in so short a time. While I was thinking about how I would have written that scene, the screeching/flaming kamikaze fairy bit happens and I burst out laughing. It is comforting to know that others had similar experiences. BTW, Ben Kingsley's vicar reminded me of Hannibal Lecter which reminded me of how I took for granted all the scary monsters in fairy stories when I was a child.

[–] 17 years ago

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[–] cookiela2001 14 years ago

I don't think the vicar even has a ROLE in the story. He's only there to be a grouch.....and cut down enormous trees in the wink of an eye.