The Girl in a Swing

Alan Desland is a cultivated English bachelor who has taken over his family's antique porcelain business. On a business trip to Copenhagen, he meets and immediately falls in love with Karin, a stunning German beauty. After only a couple of weeks they marry, honeymoon, and settle into life in Alan's hometown. At first their erotically charged relationship seems like paradise, but this, of course, cannot last. Karin has told Alan virtually nothing of her past, and her dark secret eventually manifests with supernatural trappings and threatens everything.

"The Girl in a Swing" is based on the 1980 novel by Richard "Watership Down" Adams. The film has one thing going for it; the script does an admirable job of lining up and hitting a good number of the novel's main plot points and scenes. Otherwise, this overwrought melodrama has little to recommend it.

There is so much to criticize--from the passionless direction to the insipid soundtrack, awful costuming, and poor casting. Meg Tilly in the role of Karin is particularly troublesome. While she is a fairly attractive woman, she does not project the sort of unearthly eroticism that the character requires. Worse, her muddled, affected German accent obscures most of her dialogue. When Tilly isn't screeching "Alan!" she is mumbling and slurring her most important lines. Director Gordon Hessler does little to salvage things, as he opts to film most of the important supernatural and erotic sequences in one of two modes--either flat or melodramatic.

While very few films adapted from novels can attain the dense subtext of their source material, such a film might at least evoke the essence of the story by establishing a strong mood consistent with the novelist's vision. This film, however, aspires to nothing so worthy. It neither succeeds as an adaptation of Adams' complex novel nor as a worthy cinematic effort in its own right.

A repressed Episcopalian antique dealer falls head over heels in love with his beautiful but mysterious German secretary, and is apparently so blinded by emotion that he never thinks to ask her a single question about herself. As played by a miscast Meg Tilly she's meant to be an enigmatic blend of beguiling innocence and animal passion, but what begins as a lumpy Continental romance (highlighted by some of the most banal endearments to be heard since John Gilbert was laughed off the screen) goes from love story to ghost story in one awkward Turn of the Screw. What is femme fatale Karin Forster's dark secret: is she a reformed prostitute? A pagan sorceress? A figment of her lover's overwrought imagination? Don't expect any answers from director Gordon Hessler, whose adaptation of the novel by Richard Adams is even more stiff and lifeless than its protagonist. Hessler shows obvious pride in his ability to make a halfway literate film; but it's the other half that makes no sense whatsoever, and the portentous scenario, alongside the lame dialogue, provokes more laughs than shivers.

For some mysterious reason which I shall never understand, the inspired and brilliant actress Meg Tilly has never achieved appropriate recognition for her amazing talent. This is one of her finest films, and yet it has never even been released as a DVD. I had to obtain a rare and expensive old VHS video of it, and even that was a 'screening copy for promotional purposes only', so that I wonder if even that was ever properly released. The film also contains what may well have been the finest performance by Rupert Frazer, who subsequently did most of his work for television, and has also been under-appreciated. Meg Tilly's performance in this film is so outstanding that it really is in a category of its own, far exceeding anything one would ever expect to see on screen. The history of the cinema is full of charmers and sirens, and many of the world's most beautiful women are there to be seen by one and by all. But sometimes on very rare occasions, something so special happens, someone so far excels the norm, that it is like a miracle. This is one of those occasions. As Rémy de Gourmont pointed out, the mediaeval poet Goddeschalk made an essential point when he wrote: 'You love in order to make yourself beautiful.' Here this is exquisitely portrayed by Meg Tilly, whose intense and passionate love for Rupert Frazer transforms her and makes her far more beautiful than she would normally be. We can see these physical changes take place in her in front of our very eyes. This is a magical transfiguration, like being witness to an act of sheer witchcraft. The film is excellently and sensitively directed by Gordon Hessler, who is now in his 80s and who retired from directing in 1991. There is excellent support from Nicholas Le Prevost, Lynsey Baxter, Helen Cherry (Trevor Howard's wife, in her last feature film), and others. But this film is essentially a story of love obsession between two people, into which a most devastating tragedy has intruded. The 'girl in a swing' is at the same time both a rare piece of porcelain depicting a girl on a swing, and Meg Tilly herself, whose apotheosis as a kind of incarnation of Aphrodite takes place in the garden when she has been swinging, with nothing on but a hat. There is a supernatural dimension to this film which only becomes clear towards the latter part of the story. Meg Tilly's character has been a girl of mystery from the beginning of the story, and the mystery only deepens and deepens. Rupert Frazer plays a very old-fashioned young Englishman of the sort who does not really exist anymore. He meets her in Copenhagen, she has an obscure or non-existent 'background', but they marry and she moves to England where they live for a while idyllically in his country house. The film is based upon a novel by Richard Adams. Much of it is set in Wiltshire, with several scenes taking place upon the great White Horse which is carved into the hilltop at Westbury, seen several times in magnificent aerial shots, along with lush shots of the sweeping green hills and fields of the West Country. The film has so much atmosphere that it crackles. The film would probably have failed if it were not for the central performance by Meg Tilly, as everything depends upon her being utterly convincing, and not many actresses could have summoned up the magic to become a naiad or dryad right before our bedazzled eyes in the way that she does. This film really is in a category of its own, a classic which has been entirely forgotten, or more probably was never recognised in the first place. How can the bewitching Meg Tilly possibly have been swept to one side as she was in her career, in favour of hordes of inferior actresses? I first saw her when Milos Forman's VALMONT (1989) was released a year after this film, and I thought she was extraordinary then. But this enthralling performance ranks with the greatest portrayals of a mysterious romantic woman in any film, in my opinion. The ultimate mysteries are those of the heart, as this film so magnificently and entrancingly reminds us.

"The Girl in a Swing" is nicely filmed in worldwide locales, but the director plays too much with the limits of the audience's patience. Yes, the transition from conventional romance to psychological-supernatural thriller has to be done methodically, but the pacing of this film is TORTUROUSLY slow. The plot only starts picking up after about 80 minutes. And although the main reason for the heroine's "unstable" behavior IS finally revealed (in fact, you may have already guessed it by then), other details (for example, the man's hallucinations) remain unresolved. Both leads are well-cast....but oh, that Meg Tilly's obnoxious, overdone German accent! (**)

The movie wasn't a masterpiece. But it was worth the time spent watching it. Whether it was intentional or not, the movie's slightly off-kilter tempo and underdeveloped story line gave it an eerie, life-like feeling. The interactions between Karin and Alan reminded me of having an interesting conversation with someone you just met. You spend hours laughing, exploring the world's fascinations and revealing intimate details about yourself, but after the conversation ends, you really can't recall anything about the other person; you're left wanting for more. I suppose because I hadn't read the book I had no expectations about it. To me, the movie was about a man who simply marries uncertainty. Alan never really knew Karin completely. Similar to life, we never really know everything about Karin; where she was from or what was going on inside her head. We had vague glimpses, but nothing concrete. Do you really know your spouse? I mean, really? We are always off-guard; we could never quite grab hold of Karin. I admit the movie was hard to watch, but I had this desire to finish it out. After it was over, I wanted more; like the starving man who eats the meager portions on his plate. He doesn't really care who made his meal or what is in it, but he knows he'll need more of it. Also, about Meg Tilley's much maligned German accent. She didn't deliver the stereotypical Marlene Dietrich or Colonel Klink accent; she sounds like the some of the real Germans I know here in the west side of Germany.