Fairy Tale - A True Story
Reviewed by Gordon Kearns
First time viewings of Fairy Tale - A True Story provoke immediate responses. Some love the mixing of fantasy into regular life - some hate it. Some are impressed by the musical score, some by the special effects. One viewer was vehement in his comments that "If they're going to title this 'A True Story,' they should tell it as it really happened." After all, the movie is all about the famous Cottingley photographs taken early in the twentieth century by two schoolgirls. The girls' ages aren't even right. And they actually imply that the fairies are real ... and on and on. But, as with Leon, The Messenger: Joan of Arc, Lawn Dogs, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, and most other good movies, It sometimes takes several viewings to get to the real meat of a movie's intent. If you're observant, you'll notice early in your viewings just how deep the concept of "illusion" is imbedded here. In one of the opening scenes we find ourselves at a production of Peter Pan, and we're led to believe it's because of the involvement of Peter Pan with fairies - a sensible introduction for a movie about fairies. Few first time viewers will notice how the camera explores the backstage activities, the pirates smoking modern-day cigarettes, the illusion being practiced - the mirror flashing the imaginary Tinkerbell about the stage, the rope being manipulated to make Peter appear to fly, etc. One of the key players in the story is Houdini, and his trickery is shown over and over. Near the end he has a private dialog with twelve year-old Elsie in which she asks, "Do you ever tell how you do things - just to see the look on their faces?" "Never," he answers. "And you know what? They don't want to know." A supposed dumb chess champion suddenly blurts out "You bugger" when he's defeated. The movie doesn't hide the probability that the girls pulled off this scam to give Elsie's mother hope that there may be a spirit world where her dead son Joseph might still exist. So illusion and misdirection are integral to the story. What the viewer doesn't realize right away is that he is the one being misdirected.
Everyone falls in love with the precocious eight year-old Frances, and justly so. Elizabeth Earl is a great actor and perfect for the part. Her constant hope is that her "missing in action" father will return, and we join in that hope. Tears are unavoidable when we watch her open the perfume he mailed to her perhaps years earlier. I guess I'm dense, or a sucker for misdirection, but it took me many viewings to realize that twelve year-old Elsie is the key character in the story. Florence Hoath plays the part with a subtle dignity that few actors with years more experience could possibly match. It's no secret that she's the central character; it's just that through misdirection it's not that obvious at first blush. The key scene, I believe, is the conversation she has with her father, in which she asks why he made her brother Joseph stop drawing, studying, and believing in fairies (Joseph died of pneumonia shortly before the start of the story).
"He were nearly eleven. He would have started half time at the mill when he were twelve. His childhood were nearly over. He just wouldn't let go of it. It was his time to grow up. Yours too, you know."
It's interesting that at the end of the movie, it's not the girls that the fairies choose to visit. It's to Elsie alone that they come - as Frances sleeps nearby.
When Elsie brings Queen Mab over to Frances' side, Frances wakes up, but she doesn't notice the fairy queen at all. She's listening intently to the sound of a truck stopping outside that's bringing her father back to her. She runs out without seeing Mab at all. And Elsie doesn't stop her. Elsie only smiles.
After Frances is reunited with her father, Elsie walks among the gathered fairies, smiles and says, "Thank you." Dense me thought for a long time she was thanking the fairies for bringing Frances' father back. Misdirection to the end. She was thanking them for letting her see them before she was made to grow up.
Or maybe something else. Maybe there's a final misdirection at work. Earlier, before Frances went to sleep, the girls had an interesting and perhaps revealing dialog:
Frances: What's it feel like when you grow up?
Elsie: I don't know. I think perhaps it's different for everyone.
Frances: Do you want to grow up?
Elsie: Yes, I think so
Frances: Even if it means never seeing fairies again?
Elsie: It doesn't matter never seeing them again. We'll never forget like everyone else who grows up. Because we have the photographs. That's why they're so important. Whenever we start to forget or to pretend nothing ever happened, we can look at the photographs; and we'll remember.
Pause.
Frances: I think I know how it is to be grown up.
Elsie: Yes?
Frances: It's when you feel how someone feels who isn't you.
So in the taking of the pictures - whether real or not - the girls have created a memory of fairies - and a means of holding onto a piece of their childhood imagination, which the rest of us choose to deny, as they move into their adult years. And it could be that Frances didn't see the fairies surrounding her because they weren't there. And Elsie's "Thank you" may have been a salute to that beautiful forever memory they have created.
Fairy Tale is not about fairies, and the True Story is not about Cottingley.
And Florence Hoath is magnificent.
or go to
An Explanation; Being Things; Childhood; Heroes; The Inner Spirit;
Elves I Have Known
Other Essays at Large: Movie Classics; Class of the Millennium;
My Book Reviews; My Stories
From Dorothy's Corner: For Dorothy
Comments: GKEARNS@prodigy.net