FairyTale: A True Story (1997)

User Rating:

6.2/10   

Director:

Charles Sturridge

Writers (WGA):

Albert Ash (story) &
Tom McLoughlin (story) ...

Release Date:

24 October 1997 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Family | Fantasy | Mystery

Tagline:

Believe.

Plot:

Two children in 1917 take a photograph, believed by some to be the first scientific evidence of the existence of fairies. Based on a true story.

Plot Keywords:

Fairy | Sir Arthur Conan Doyle | Harry Houdini | Photograph | London England

Awards:

1 win & 3 nominations

Cast

Harvey Keitel	...	Harry Houdini
Jason Salkey	...	James Collins
Peter O'Toole	...	Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Lara Morgan	...	Jean Doyle
Adam Franks	...	Adrian Doyle
Guy Witcher	...	Denis Doyle
Joseph May	...	Houdini's Assistant
John Bradley	...	Portly Gentleman
Anna Chancellor	...	Peter Pan
Florence Hoath	...	Elsie Wright
Phoebe Nicholls	...	Polly Wright
Leonard Kavanagh	...	Stage Manager
Elizabeth Earl	...	Frances Griffiths
Paul McGann	...	Arthur Wright
Anton Lesser	...	Wounded Corporal

Also Known As:

Illumination (UK) (working title)

MPAA:

Rated PG for brief mild language.

Runtime:

99 min

Country:

UK | USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Singapore:G | Iceland:L | Canada:G (Ontario) | Australia:G | France:U | Norway:7 | Portugal:M/6 (video premiere) | Spain:7 | UK:U | USA:PG

Filming Locations:

Cottingley, West Yorkshire, England, UK

Company:

Icon Entertainment International

Trivia:

The last film of 'Don Henderson'.

Quotes:

Harry Houdini: Anything can be faked by anyone.

Movie Connections:

Version of Photographing Fairies (1997)

Soundtrack:

See the Conquering Hero Comes

Hope in the unreal

Based on a famous "Cottingley fairies" hoax perpetrated by two English girls during World War I in 1917, "FairyTale: A True Story" presents alternate views of reality to suggest that, like the view of Aborigines, dreams are as real as conscious reality. If you take the special effects fairies too literally in this film, you will miss the point. The film plays a trick on you, just as the original incident played a trick on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in 1917. Houdini, as played by Harvey Keitel, gets the point. Although he's one to debunk mystics who defraud the gullible, he too trades on people's need to believe in magic. The girls' deception is also a sort of benign fraud. As any magician, they should never reveal their "secret." The film invites comparisons to the famous French classic, "Forbidden Games" in which children construct an elaborate fantasy world as a way of coping with the reality of war. Here too, the girls use fairies to fill the void in their lives left by their father, who has gone "missing" on the front in France. "I know what they mean by 'missing,'" says one of the sisters, conscious of reality but hoping to "believe" in the unlikely event of his return. This is not a kiddie film, but a langorous period piece on the nature of belief and faith in the face of empirical skepticism. The film reinforces its theme with beautiful details, as at the end when the father says he smells the perfume which isn't there, or in the ghostly intrusion of a dead brother that changes the mind of a skeptical reporter. Even the final sequence, involving fairies, is so charming it steers clear of cynical manipulation. Although there are moments when the plot seems to become arbitrary or plodding, it's all tied up neatly and beautifully in a magical finale. I'd hesitate to call this a classic, but it is a worthwhile "sleeper." Just bring an open mind and heart.