User reviews

I've only seen this once, when it was released more than twenty years ago, but have never been able to forget it. Two English women touring Versailles witness some strange people and odd goings on but they don't discuss it with one another until their return home, when they compare notes. Their independent accounts agree on most of the important points but there are enough discrepancies to pique their interest. Some further research seems to indicate that the people and events they were witness to are long dead. One lady, wearing what is consistently called a "fichou" -- I can only imagine what that is -- may have been Marie Antoinette. The rest of the movie, about half, is taken up with their decision to publish their experiences, inviting ridicule. That's a bit sketchy but it's been a long time.

I remember it for a number of reasons. One is Hannah Gordon's performance. She consistently wears a dreamy far-away look, as if not really paying attention to what others are saying, until something is said that irritates her and then she snaps back into the present with some cutting remark.

Another memorable feature of the movie is the way the experience, let's call it "supernatural", is played. No spooky music. No dialog at all. The women walk in slow motion through a fuzzily photographed set that seems imbued with mystery and heat. It's extremely effective.

Another reason I remember it is that it serves as -- if not exactly a wake-up call for scientists -- at least a nudge in the night. The story seems simple. Two sexually repressed ladies, disturbed by the strange surroundings and the summer heat, become pixillated and see ghosts. There was a lot of that sort of thing going about in Victorian and Edwardian England -- ghosts, fairies, seances. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was involved in it, and Harry Houdini, and Madam Blavatsky was a best seller. Well, it's understandable. The belief that God was behind everything was being challenged by Darwinism and other scientific advances, and it was natural that people should want to explore in the interface (or "warfare" as some called it) between science and religion. Nowadays we've outgrown all that superstition. Skeptics are fond of quoting the Scottish philosopher David Hume, something to the effect that if someone reports a miracle and tries to explain it by invoking an even greater miracle, he will always accept the lesser of the two miracles.

Since nobody believes in miracles anymore, this dictum has a modern ring to it. But if you substitute "probability" for "miracle," it begins to look a bit less powerful. At one time, after all, it would have been a miracle for stones to fall from the skies, so every thinking person rejected the possibility. That was before the discovery of meteorites.

I've been a research scientist for thirty years and have forced myself to keep an open mind, especially to events I think are silly or work in favor of my own prejudices. Another person and I once had an experience with what can only be called an unidentified flying object. It turned my conception of the world on a tilt. I've tried since then to avoid the kind of colossal arrogance that leads to thinking that our generation stands on the peak of knowledge, and that although there is more to learn about the universe, no knowledge that we already rely on can be mistaken. Baloney.

There are things we don't know -- and we don't know that we don't know them. I don't know if those two ladies went through the experience they claimed. But the possibility can't be simply dismissed.

I have seen this film a couple of times and found it a beautifully produced and insightful film. Wendy Hiller and Hannah Gordon are excellent as two courageous Edwardian scholars clashing with the closed, male dominated academic world of Oxford in 1901. Determined to tell the world of their strange paranormal experience at Versailles even if it means jeopardizing their credibility as scholars (albeit women scholars!). Authentic period detail, combined with sensitive performances, make the film a rare gem. The 'ghostly' subject matter is very effectively presented and leaves a lasting impression on the viewer.

The great Dame Wendy is at her best!

I'm not a big fan of paranormal stories, but this is different. Not just because Hannah Gordon manages to astonish me once again. She is absolutely brilliant in this interesting historic scenario, and next to Dame Wendy Hiller, they put together a masterpiece. The two women, as different as they are, make a very intreaging couple, given the time the story is taking place - and an interesting portrait of women a hundred years ago in britain. I just love that speech Gordon makes to the students in the end - she is indeed better than the lot of them put together - that goes for Hannah Gordon as well as the character she plays. Wendy Hiller's mimic is absolutely excellent too.

Just another marvel, featuring brilliant Hannah Gordon (see Day After The Fair) and the towering English actress, Dame Wendy Hiller, on an excursion in Versailles...and in time.

I saw this film and absolutely loved it!! I am a great fan of the stunning actress Hannah Gordon and the reason I bought the film was because she was in it. Dame Wendy Hiller was also fantastic and some of her remarks in the film were light-hearted and so this gave her character a different side to what we first see. Hannah Gordon never ceases to be wonderful and I think that both actresses should have got an award for such a brilliant masterpiece!!

A couple of Edwardian lady-scholars are trying to launch a new Oxford college against heavy opposition - a major test of character and credibility for both of them. Yet they are also trying to convince the reading public that they have experienced a genuine time-travel moment in the gardens of Versailles, lifting them suddenly into revolutionary days, with a close-up view of Marie-Antoinette. The book is a sellout, but it seems to put out a dubious message about the two ladies and their somewhat varying claims.

The charm of the setting (the wooded paths around Petit Trianon) and the historical figures wandering in and out are only one part of the appeal. More intriguing are the differing theories to explain the event. Some report that it was a sweltering day, and the ladies needed to sit down and rest, possibly dropping asleep for a moment. Others comment that people as highly educated as these two would have known plenty about Bourbon dress and hair-styles; we might say they would have known what to imagine.

Then the idea of a dual hallucination is a bit suspect, though it might be more likely if the two people were emotionally close - a touchy subject. (Relationships from those discreet days are hard to interpret, sometimes sexual when they appear platonic, sometimes the other way about.) Personally I'm drawn to the theory about the illicit gay costume party with a 'tableau vivant' that was hushed-up, so there was no mention of it in the records, to guide later investigators.

Wendy Hiller as the senior of the two is perfectly cast, a bit too tightly disciplined, taking herself too seriously, her obsession that she is the next Galileo possibly signalling the need for a little eccentricity to relieve the pressure. Hannah Gordon is enchanting as the junior partner, though I can't quite understand her farewell message to an assembly of collegians "I'm better than all of you put together." At some points, the musical track is uncomfortably loud, killing some of the dialogue. And I would have thought that one of the Oxford experts on the team would have known that Charlbury is pronounced Chawlbury.

This is the finest presentation of paranormal experience on film. This could happen to you or to me and the film makes you know it! Wendy Hiller is an outstanding actress and totally believable in this role. I am shocked that it is out on DVD as well as VHS. Now if we could just convince someone to put the 1963 Haunting out on DVD.

This story could be told in half its length.

It's always a pleasure to see Wendy Hiller whose had such a crippled film career but as for the other woman- well, I don't know her.