The Turn of the Screw (TV 2009)

A naive and sexually repressed young governess is haunted by the ghosts of previous occupants of a mansion.

Director:

Tim Fywell

Writers:

Henry James (story), Sandy Welch (screenplay)

Stars:

Michelle Dockery, Eva Sayer, Josef Lindsay

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Michelle Dockery	...	Ann
Eva Sayer	...	Flora
Josef Lindsay	...	Miles
Dan Stevens	...	Dr. Fisher
Mark Umbers	...	Master
Corin Redgrave	...	Professor
Wendy Albiston	...	Baines
Nicola Walker	...	Carla
Sue Johnston	...	Sarah Grose
Sarah Buckland	...	Diane
Edward MacLiam	...	Peter Quint
Katie Lightfoot	...	Emily Jessel
Nellie Burroughes	...	Abused Maid
Peter Bygott	...	Ann's Father
Honor Cargill-Martin	...	Young Ann

Storyline

Based on Henry James famous novel, this latest version emphasises the ambiguity of this supernatural drama. Does Ann really see ghosts? Are the two children in her care about to be possessed by the spirits of the sexually dubious Peter Quint and Emily Jessell? This is left to the viewer to decide during a bleak yet sumptious 90 minutes of classic period storytelling.

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Plot Keywords:

ghost | mansion | children | governess | 19th century | 

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Genres:

Drama | Horror | Mystery | Thriller

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Details

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Release Date:

30 December 2009 (UK)

Also Known As:

Le tour d'écrou

Company Credits

Production Co:

British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), BBC Drama Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

89 min

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.78 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

With his appearance as the Professor in this film, Corin Redgrave is the third member of his family to appear in an adaptation of the Henry James story. His father appeared in the film 'The Innocents' and his sister starred in the 1974 version.

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Quotes

[last lines]
Flora: [to the new governess] There you are. We've been waiting for you.

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Connections

Version of The Turn of the Screw (1974)

User Reviews

A turn for the worse

I first read Henry James' chilling ghost story at a young age and have seen different versions of it both on stage and film and so was very keen to see this latest version put forward by the BBC in their winter season.

The key to the story, in my opinion, is the doubt on whose truth here is real. Indeed when I first read the novella in my youth, it never occurred to me that the ghosts weren't "real" and not possibly a figment of an over-emotional young woman's imagination. Re-reads and re-viewings of the piece have brought me round to this, I think, intended more ambivalent (and ultimately satisfying) interpretation so that I was disappointed that that this high-production-value version seemed to cleave so much to the former viewpoint, i.e. that the malevolent spirits were real - this evidenced by the ghosts "appearing" in the imagination, for example of the young doctor who attempts to understand and salve the troubled mind of the disturbed young governess.

Another source of confusion and disappointment was the transposition of events to post-First World War England. If the lead character had been a young man, just back from and possibly their mind affected by the war, then a case for this change of context, could be argued. In every other respect though, the film plays as if in a 19th Century time-line thus throwing the narrative off-kilter. I could also have done without the sub-Lady Chatterley cavortings of both the governess in her imagination with her new employer (who, good looks apart and a self-confessed seducer of previous servants and governesses), hardly seems able to be responsible for her graphic fantasising, as well as the crudely physical liaison that the phantoms Quint and Jessell portray.

The film takes this shock-Gothic outlook to extremes with scenes suggesting the actual possession of the children by their malefactors but it's all done in a very sub-"The Exorcist" way and in the end I felt it wrong to come down so conclusively on the side of the demons.

The acting was mixed in quality, the children unable to portray the duality of their personalities convincingly and the actor playing Quint lacking menace entirely. However, Michelle Dockery, as the stricken governess, was convincing in both appearance and conviction, with the omnipresent Sue Johnston a sympathetic foil as the bemused house-matron.

There were some scares deftly inserted along the way, punctuated effectively by well-crafted background music, but as I said earlier, the modernising of the story to include the nudity and violence depicted here, overpowered, to me anyway, the thin line between fantasy and reality that served the original book so well.

A great story, lost somewhat in this particular re-telling.