Tonight we watched a lovely film from 1997: FairyTale: A
True Story.
For some reason I searched Netflix seeking Peter O’Toole
films I had missed. This film cropped up. What really caught my interest was
that Prof Sandy is teaching a history of photography class, and had told me
about the “fairy photo” scandal. In 1917, two young cousins in Yorkshire took
photos of fairies, and being that the UK was suffering from such pain during
WW1, people wanted to believe in fairy and angels.
What makes this event such a historical footnote is that Sir
Arthur Conan Doyle, yes, the creator of Sherlock Holmes, totally believed in
these photos to the point where he wrote a book about them. The cousins
remained mum until the 1980’s, when they admitted they had cut out pictures of
fairies and photographed them.
No matter what, this is a brilliant film which, unless
you’re made of stone, will make you cry. It’s all about believing in magic and
miracles.
