Reviews

I first saw this film - attracted by the fact it includes the excellent Timothy Dalton, a film score by Gabriel Yared, and Frederic Raphael as one of the screenplay writers - in the much abridged 90 minute version released on a Spanish DVD (fortunately including an English soundtrack). Even from this - which cuts at least 40 minutes from the original version - I could see this was a beautifully filmed and excellently acted drama. It also explains why so many comments here at IMDb suggest that the story is psychologically implausible. A more complete version of the film has just (in 2008) been released in France (lasting 127 minutes - alas for English speakers dubbed into French and naturally without subtitles): from this it is evident that for the 90 minute version bits were trimmed here and there almost throughout the film. So seeing something approaching the complete film is a revelation - a much harder and more cynical view of the main characters (particularly the king and his mistress), and it is clear that Valeria Golino's character *never* forgives the man who so grievously betrayed her (I'm expressing it in this way to avoid creating a 'spoiler'), but in fact exploits him in the end for her own purposes. All of which makes the genuine love which grows between the central characters all the more poignant and moving - there's a sense of something beautiful which has been warped and made into a destructive force by their social circumstances and the collision between social principle and unbridled yet illusionary 'power'.

Strangely enough, the French version, though more complete than the Spanish, cuts some scenes which appear in the Spanish version (one scene in particular adds a certain spice to Golino's character when the viewer is more aware of her motivations from the longer version of the film): so until either the complete German version is released, or a complete English language version is released, those who love this film will have to buy both the Spanish and the French DVDs.

First the obvious plus points. Phoebe Cates is charming, and the character actors (notably Kevin Kline and Jim Broadbent) are all splendid fun; plus there's excellent cinematography from Freddie Francis.

SPOILER ALERT: The film is based on a true story, in which early in the 19th century provincials around Bristol and the West Country in the UK were excited by the apparent appearance of a pretty, oriental princess who had allegedly been kidnapped by pirates and had made her escape to England, where she came under the protection of the Worralls (Mr Worrall being a magistrate - not a banker as portrayed in the film). Eventually, ten weeks later, she was revealed as a fraud - she was in fact a certain Mary Baker - yet Mrs Worrall, whose sympathy Mary kept even after being unmasked, arranged for her to sail to Philadelphia. The film implies that she had been facing the death penalty for her deception, and that she was to enjoy a new life in America. The truth, more prosaically, is that Mary Baker tired of life in the States after seven years and eventually returned to England in the 1820s, where she died in 1865. All this info can be found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Princess_Caraboo and at http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/hoax/Hoaxipedia/Princess_Caraboo/

All this rather underlines that the film-makers have taken this curious story and given it a harder spin against the English 'establishment', notably the aristocracy (in the form of the prince regent who is purposely made to look ridiculous, a point underlined as 'Caraboo' is apparently faced with the choice of the noble Irish journalist and the foppish and ridiculously dressed up prince). There's no evidence that the historic Caraboo came within spitting distance of the aristocracy, though the British press of the time gleefully had a field day over the gullibility of the local upper classes of Bristol and the surrounding region. Also I'm afraid the contrast of noble/innocent Irishmen (one of Caraboo's fellow inmates is - surprise, surprise - an innocent Irishman) versus evil English power-that-be (the only sympathetic English person who isn't a servant is Mrs Worrall) is becoming a tired cliché. Pity, because otherwise this is quite an enjoyable film.

I only discovered this film through becoming fascinated with the music of Leonid Desyatnikov (who also scored 'Prisoners of the Mountains'), and being intrigued by the fact it stars and was produced by Anthony Andrews (of Brideshead Revisited fame). I first tracked down a Danish VHS copy, which inevitably was subtitled in Danish throughout; unfortunately the film, though some of it is in English, is mostly in Russian. I got a fair impression from the Danish version, though, realising that it was excellently filmed and well acted, and the music extremely effective and - in a quite unconventional (for film music) way - highly touching, especially when following the fortunes of the young but very feisty Lilka.

The story, on one level, is about the appalling fate of an English archaeologist, Andrew (aka Andrei) Miller, who is mistaken for an American spy by Stalin's secret police, captured and tortured. When they realise their mistake, they try to conceal it by having Miller sent off to a gulag in Siberia. The grim conditions and the cruelty, not least from fellow prisoners, is believably portrayed. But, like a small oasis, there is kindness in the form of the young girl Lilka, and the female doctor in the camp, Anna, who originally came there to follow her husband when he was sentenced for some unspecified political deviancy.

I am loathe to give a 'spoiler' here, but what I'm going to write in this paragraph may give some of the plot away, so be warned. The Danish version of the film I saw had a suitably downbeat ending. This is largely mitigated in the English version I eventually traced (a second-hand VHS tape) which - unlike the Danish version - has an intrusive voice-over by Andrew Miller at the start whose need is only clear when the voice-over appears at the very end of the film to effectively reassure the audience that he survives to tell the tale at the end 'to ensure that this does not happen again' - a fatuous statement and one which strongly jars with the thrust of the film. I assume this voice-over was put in after some negative previews (studios seem very nervous of audiences' reactions to films which end on a 'downer'). But even with this, the film still comes across most powerfully, and with the English subtitles I was better able to appreciate the initially far from amiable relationship between Lilka and Anna. This is definitely a film worth hunting for, and I very much hope it will one day see the light on a commercial DVD release. The only reason I hesitate to give it absolute top marks is the slight hint of staginess in the final scenes of the film (though this possibly makes sense if one accepts that it reflects Andrew/Andrei's loosening grip on reality). END OF POTENTIAL SPOILER

Altogether an excellent film which deserves far wider exposure.