Photographing Fairies
| Photographing Fairies | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Directed by | Nick Willing |
| Produced by | Michele Carmarda |
| Written by | Nick Willing Chris Harrald |
| Based on |
Photographing Fairies by Steve Szilagyi |
| Starring |
Toby Stephens Emily Woof Ben Kingsley Frances Barber Philip Davis |
| Music by | Simon Boswell |
| Cinematography | John DeBorman |
| Edited by | Sean Barton |
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Production
company |
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| Distributed by | Entertainment Film Distributors |
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Release date
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September 19, 1997 (United Kingdom) |
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Running time
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104 minutes |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Budget | $1 million |
| Box office | $4.6 million |
Photographing Fairies is a 1997 British fantasy film based on Steve Szilagyi's 1992 novel of the same name. The film explores some of the themes of folklore, such as possession, paganism, animism, hallucinogens, parapsychology and fairies. It was inspired by the Cottingley Fairies hoax, and was released in the United Kingdom on September 19, 1997.
In Switzerland in 1912, photographer Charles Castle (Toby Stephens) and Anna-Marie, his fiancèe, are married in an Alpine church. The following day, they are walking in the mountains when a snowstorm closes in. They are returning to the village when a crevasse opens and Anna-Marie falls into it. Charles tries to pull her out but he loses his grip and she dies. During the Great War, Castle serves as an army photographer in the trenches of France. He is photographing corpses with his assistant Roy (Phil Davis) when a mortar lands close by. Roy returns to the trenches but Castle seems unconcerned and continues photographing. He returns to the trenches just before the mortar explodes.
After the war, Castle and Roy run a photographic studio in London. Castle specialises in photographic trick work, including photomontage. He attends a lecture at the Theosophical Society, where Arthur Conan Doyle is examining a projected image of the Cottingley Fairies. Conan Doyle seems convinced they are genuine, but Castle stands, publicly debunks the image and hands out business cards to the audience.
At his studio, Castle is visited by Beatrice Templeton (Frances Barber), who shows him a photograph of her daughter. She is convinced that a mysterious shape is a fairy, but Castle dismissed the idea. However, he investigates the photograph, sees the shape laterally reflected in the girl's eye and makes multiple large prints to discover how the picture was made. Unable to explain or debunk the photograph, Castle hastily travels to see Beatrice in a village called Birkenwell, where upon arrival he sees and recognises Templeton's daughters, Ana (Miriam Grant) and Clara (Hannah Bould), and follows them to their home. Beatrice tells Castle that the photograph no longer matters – she has seen the fairies. She asks him to meet her at the great tree in Birkenwell Woods the following day.
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Wikipedia