The elven garden
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | The elven garden |
| Original title | Photographing fairies |
| Country of production | England |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1997 |
| length | 106 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | Nick Willing |
| script | Steve Szilagyi (novel), Chris Harrald, Nick Willing |
| production | Michele Camarda, Alan Greenspan, Mike Newell , Fonda Snyder, Larry Weinberg |
| music | Simon Boswell |
| camera | John de Borman |
| cut | Sean Barton |
| occupation | |
| |
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The Elfengarten (original title: Photographing Fairies ) is an English feature film from 1997.
Plot (summary)
Charles Castle (Toby Stephens) and his wife Anne-Marie (Rachel Shelley) spend their honeymoon in the Swiss Alps in the winter of 1912/1913. During a hike, they get caught in a snow storm and Anne-Marie falls into a crevasse - Charles cannot hold them and Anne-Marie dies.
Years later, Charles and Roy run a photo studio together . Both survived World War I as British soldiers, and Charles in particular is disillusioned with life. Charles has specialized in photographs of the war dead in newly created portraits with their families to imprint , so that the bereaved a memorial remains of her late son, brother or husband. Roy , his friend and comrade from the World War I trench warfare , assists Charles.
In order to suppress his memories of the war and his deceased wife, Charles attends spiritualistic meetings in his spare time , primarily to expose fake photographs as such. As part of a theosophical event, Charles impressed Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (Edward Hardwicke) with his photographic expertise , as Charles later learned on the occasion of a visit from Mrs. Beatrice Templeton (Frances Barber): She asked him to take a photograph of an alleged one made by her daughter To investigate Fee - to his utter astonishment, Charles cannot detect a fake and travels to Burkinwell (Cottingley) to get to the bottom of the mystery.
Without having announced his arrival, he first meets Clara (Hannah Bould) and Ana Templeton (Miriam Grant) and their nanny, Linda (Emily Woof). Linda and Charles get closer. Increasingly fascinated by the stories of the two girls, Clara Templeton and Charles discover the secret and realize that with the help of a hallucinatory flower, more can be seen behind reality than the human senses can perceive. Overwhelmed by these impressions, he travels to Sir Arthur again, describes his new experiences and changes from a skeptic to a realist who is willing to discuss the extrasensory, whereupon Conan Doyle only invites them to a public debate.
After Clara Templeton had a fatal accident in a fall from a tree, Charles met her husband, Reverend Templeton ( Ben Kingsley ), at the funeral on his return . He suspects an affair and tries to get to know his supposed rival. In the meantime, Roy has arrived in Burkinwell , against his will but at Charles' express request, together with extensive photographic equipment and a high-speed camera that has been rented for a lot of money and supports Charles with his further investigations on site. The Reverend Templeton tried to suppress the grief for his wife; After his youngest daughter fell from the devil's tree , he discovered a shrine for the two girls for their mother. He now recognizes the background to the accidents, in his impotent anger and sadness he falls down his daughters 'favorite tree, in whose forks of branches the blossoms grow, and burns it with the blossoms and Charles' photo equipment. Reverend Templeton also had an accident in the ensuing scuffle with Charles when he attacked him with an ax - Charles was brought to justice for alleged murder. Charles suspects after his own experiences with the blossoms of the tree that death is not the end and does not defend himself with a single word. Meanwhile, Roy takes care of Linda and the two orphaned girls in London. Charles Castle is executed with the rope - with the last of the remaining flowers he perceives the fairy-like apparitions again, suddenly finds himself on the glacier from the opening scene and is able to save his wife from the crevasse.
background
Based on Steve Szilagy's novel of the same name and on the events of the so-called Cottingley Fairies , Nick Willing developed the framework story about Charles Castle . At the center of the plot are the supposedly taken photographs of fairy figures with butterfly-like wings and airy clothes . Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who vouched for the authenticity of the recordings in the affair at the time, can only be seen in a longer scene as part of a theosophical event, namely in the role of Charles' opponent, who expose the recordings as fakes intended. In contrast to the controversy surrounding the Cottingley Fairies , the film adaptation leaves open whether the recordings are real or fake.
Trivia
Almost at the same time, the film Stranger Beings (Fairy Tale: A True Story) was released, which deals with the same topic with a modified frame story. The Elfengarten was broadcast repeatedly on German-speaking television, most recently on April 9, 2014 in the night program of RTL II .
Reviews
“A wonderfully photographed film, the dignified equipment of which revives a bygone era and its view of the world. Although the well-played film revolves around an insatiable longing and death, it also conveys a glimmer of hope for the famous second chance, which, however, has to be raised. "
Web links
- Photographing Fairies in the Internet Movie Database (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ The Elven Garden. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed April 11, 2014 .