Customer Reviews

Miss Morison's Ghosts

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Miss Morison's Ghosts is an adaptation of the story of Charlotte Moberly and Eleanor Jourdain, two English academics from Oxford who, in the summer of 1901, visited Versailles Palace. There they had a strange experience which seemed to involve ghosts. Unlike many people involved with ghostly visitations, these ladies had a great deal to lose and nothing to gain from publicizing their experiences. They did publish their story, however, in the interests of scientific research. As a result their academic reputations suffered.

Miss Morison's Ghosts was shown on "Mystery" in the mid 1980s. Since seeing it then I have anxiously awaited a chance to buy it on video. Now the DVD version is well worth the wait. The picture is as sharp as if it had been filmed yesterday, and the scenes in Oxford and Versailles are wonderfully atmospheric.

Dame Wendy Hiller and Hannah Gordon are excellent as Misses Morison and Lamont. There are also many supporting actors who were probably not well known in the mid 1980s, but who are quite famous today. And the ghosts at Versailles? A true paranormal adventure, or just a summer's daydream? You'll have to watch and make up your own minds on that!

For anyone seriously interested in the paranormal, this movie is a must. For anyone who's had an experience and endured humiliation and ridicule, this movie is even more important. The story, based on an actual incident beginning in 1901, is well written and masterfully performed. I've wanted to see a movie of this caliber, regarding the paranormal, my entire adult life. Finding it has been akin to discovering hidden treasure.

This is a great film. It recreates a cloistered world of academia where women were struggling to be heard.Two academics visit Paris and find themselves transported back to the French Revolution for a short time. They then must struggle to have their voice heard among those who doubt them.

The film contains some strong performance and wonderful scenes. The writing is a joy and the performances reinforce each other. I particularly liked the growing strength and confidence of the women as their careers slide and they refuse to forget what they have seen or heard.

This is an excellent "camp" drama. Great acting, well scripted makes one feel they are actually with these two ladies in Versailles.As a viewer I was drawn by the "normal" lives of these women who suffered an extraordinary experience. Well worth watching for lovers of English and French history.

Having just watched Miss Morison's Ghosts for the first time I feel I have to watch it again. Considering it was based on an actual happening, the events recorded were certainly weird. A time slip into the past at Versailles and the ensuing reporting of the happenings all lead to an enthralling film superbly acted by Wendy Hillier and Hannah Gordon. I was especially taken with Miss Gordon's performance especially her final sermon, but what a twist at the end!!! I would thoroughly recommend this film to any who have not yet bought it.

This is a great re-inactment of a true incident, in which two lady educators in 1901, visited Versailles, and saw people there who had lived 112 years before!

Ghost stories of any kind are thrilling -- but to me, the BEST ghost stories are the true ones! It is true that the ghosts of the people purportedly so clearly seen by the two 20th century ladies, (including, in all likelihood, that of Marie Antoinette), did meet with cruel and savage deaths. However, these deaths were NOT seen by "modern" lady educators, and so THIS true story, (and I, for one definitely DO believe it actually did happen), is far less violent on the screen than many recountings of modern hauntings, (as in several current TV Ghost-Hunting programs) -- and definitely less violent than many (fictional) horror movies today. Because of this, the viewer is allowed to concentrate, not on violence -- but on science! DID the ladies REALLY see these ghosts? And if so, 1) Why did one sometimes see ghosts that the other did not, and 2) HOW did this justaposition in time take place?

WENDY HILLER -- a superb actress in all of her films, (and probably plays too, though I never had the pleasure of seeing any) 00 including that of the original "Eliza" in the non-musical "Pygmalian", (later redone, musically, as "My Fair Lady"), is superb as always as Miss Morrison, the principle of one of Oxford (England's), collges, and HANNAH GORDEN, (who performed so well in 'Upstairs Downstairs', and 'The Elephant Man', among other memorable performances), as her vice-principal, Miss Lamont, are totally and completely believable in their roles. As is the entire cast! The music, direction, camera angles, and (beautiful!) costumes are also superb. The script was written SO well you might think the actors were ad-libbing!
Kudos to all who worked on this memorable film. All those...except for one category of artistic pros. It's too bad these pros were only 85% "up to snuff"....whilst the rest of the cast and crew was nearly at the 100% mark!

So -- who ruined this otherwise sterling video for me? THE SOUND TECNICIANS! I suppose they had one unfortunate problem to begin with -- and that is the wonderful, (but sometimes incomprehensible), English accents of all the cast members. However -- what I found most annoying was that these often-incomprehenisble accents were made all the more difficult to understand because THE AUDIO PORTION OF THE FILM DID NOT 'BALANCE OUT' THE SOUND TRACK. Voices were heard loud and soft, as perhaps is in real life -- but here, it was a real annoyance to this viewer. Either the voice-track was so low you couldn't hear exactly what was being said, or -- if one turns up the volume -- often SO loud you wonder if the audio tract might wake the dead....or at least bring complaints from your neighbours! Turn the volume down, and you often can't hear what is being said...turn it up, and you risk busted eardrums. The sound techicians should have realized this, and put the sound-track on "auto-level", so one could hear everything without being accused of making a disturbance in one's neighbourhood. To be fair, I suspect, perhaps, that putting the audio track on a "real-to-life", unaltered mode, was a try at making the film seem even more realistic. Good try, technicians -- but the "too-loud or too-soft, unmodulated" sound track ruined a great deal of this movie for me.

I see there that the manufacturers have discontinued making this video -- and that prices for it have skyrocked! I ask the manufacturers, here, please to reconsider their decision, and continue making this great video. Only this time with an "auto-level", modulated audio track! With 2012 fast approaching, all things supernatural, ghostly, paranormal, (and dealing with time-travel!), will, I feel, find increasing interest for the general public. This classic, (and true!) story, of two early 20th century lady educators, who encuntered the ghosts of Marie Antoinette and her court, is sure to best-seller, if publicised in the right way! A remake might also be an idea -- but this video is SO perfect, it needs no remake. Just tweak the sound-track so we can hear everything that is so realistically and fascinatingly said!

I enjoyed this ghost drama on DVD. I was not absolutely enthralled by it though. I think the reason it didn't take me the whole way to 5 stars is that it is too much an intellectual approach to a paranormal experience. Two Victorian women in English education travel to France where they appear to be able to see through time as they visit the tourist sites. They see scenes and people from centuries earlier. They decide to tell of their experience when they return to England. All sorts of unpleasant events flow from this telling, including putting their futures in education on the line. It was a well done tale but I simply felt too distanced from what was going on to really be enthralled by it.

Reading about academics is dry stuff, appreciated only by other academics; however, on a summer's afternoon in August of 1901, Moberly and Jourdain share a somewhat unique and other worldly experience. Their book, AN ADVENTURE, was published in 1911 and relates the incident, as well as the research and fact-checking the two ladies engaged in during the years after their initial encounter with long dead historical figures at the small, private chateau of Queen Marie Antoinette, known as the Petit Trianon.

Today, time slips are known by all, and more people seem to be experiencing them. This DVD brings the book on which the DVD is based, THE GHOSTS OF TRIANON, to life. The DVD is an obvious advantage for the reader because it's difficult to picture this incident in the mind's eye.

I recently suggested this DVD and book to a colleague of mine who teaches French, hoping that she might entice her students to read the book, view the DVD, and plan their yearly trip to France around it. I understand that many students do this very thing. What an excursion that must be!