DVDown Under Review - Fairytale : A True Story

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DVD Review

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fairytale.jpg (7578 bytes)
This DVD is Anamorphic Widescreen

Director
Charles Sturridge

Cast
Florence Hoath,
Elizabeth Earl,
Paul McGann,
Phoebe Nichol,
Bill Nighy,
Bob Peck,
Peter O'Toole

Music
Zbigniew Preisner

"Believe"
Audio	English
Subtitle/s	None
Region Code	2,4
Chapters	20
Disc Format	DVD9
Running Time	94 minutes
Extras	- Cast and Crew Interviews - Trailer - Behind the Scenes Featurette
Classification	G
Distributor	Magna Pacific
Release date	16th March 2001
Website	FairyTale
Reviewer	Cass Nunn

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I found this to be a truly enlightening film. Whilst I had hear stories of this before I was amazed when I saw it on film. This is a true story of two young girls (cousins) in 1917 who have taken photographs of Fairies in the bottom of their garden. Whilst them mother of one of the girls starts out not believing in fairies she ends up being the girls greatest advocate.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and of course Harry Houdini the master of deception are both intrigued in these pictures as they have been declared authentic and not created with any embellishment. In short this is proof that Fairies do exist.

The world goes into a flurry of disbelief and the girls and their family are challenged time and again as people try to come to terms with such a fairy tale.

The cinematography is a real winner in this film and I am impressed with the depiction of the era and the emphasis on the first world war of the time, which contrasts well to the beautiful and lush garden scenes complete with real live fairies!

So how does this transfer hold up?

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VIDEO
The 1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen transfer is great! The transfer is generally sharp and clear throughout but occasionally lapses in focus and gets a little soft and grainy but these are minor problems. Shadow detail was always perfect. There are many dark scenes here and there was no loss of detail at any time. There are a couple of slight instances of shimmering but again these are not bad. There were only a couple of small film artefacts.

The colour palette is also very well coordinated with the era of the film with soft and subtle colour which at time enhanced the feeling of sorrow from the war but then picked up with the beautiful lush garden colours. These could have been a little brighter but were generally very good.

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AUDIO
The Dolby Digital 2.0 surround track is adequate for the film but that’s about it. There is nothing spectacular here. Dialogue was always clear and easy to understand even with some hearty accents thrown in.

The score is a standard classical mix which fits the film well.

There is little if any use of the surrounds. I could only occasionally hear support for the score but that was it.

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EXTRAS

Cast and Crew Interviews: 8 short interviews which are really quite interesting
Theatrical Trailer
Behind the Scenes featurette: short 6 minutes of shooting but sadly no insight into the fairies.

OVERALL
Very cute.

PICTURE QUALITY	8/10 great!
SOUND Quality	7/10 a little drab
EXTRAS	3/10 average
OVERALL	8/10 a very cute little flick.

Review Equipment
TV: GE 68cm (16:9 selectable)
DVD: Pioneer 737
Receiver: Yamaha RX-V595a
Speakers:-
Fronts: B&W 602 (on a pair of custom made stands you'd KILL for)
Centre: Venturi
Rears: Wharfedale Diamond R6
Sub: M&K v75

- Review Posted 20th November 2001

* jpeg files for internet promotion use only. Copyright� exists on all aspects of these files by Magna Pacific