The 13th Day
by Ian Higgins, Dominic Higgins
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DVD details
Actor: Filipa Fernandes, Jane Lesley, Michael D'Cruze, Tarek MerlinDirector: Dominic Higgins, Ian Higgins
Brand: Ignatius Press
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); Portuguese (Subtitled); English (Original Language)
Format: NTSC, Surround Sound
Running Time: 85 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2009-12-01
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Ignatius Press
DVD Reviews of The 13th Day
DVD Review: Some interesting moments, but too stylish for its own good
Summary: 3 Stars
This is the third feature-length dramatization of the Fatima story.
The first, THE MIRACLE OF OUR LADY OF FATIMA (Warner Brothers, 1951), is a shamelessly sentimental Hollywood tear-jerker. Despite many serious flaws and inaccuracies, it recounts the basic facts in an entertaining way, and builds up to a genuinely moving climax that communicates the spiritual import of the story. This is the movie I loan to people who know little or nothing about Fatima.
The second, APPARITIONS AT FATIMA (1992), is the film that is shown (in several languages) at the tourist theater in the Sanctuary of Fatima. It was filmed entirely in Portugal at the actual locations, using Portuguese talent. The actors cast as the children are dead ringers! It includes the "angel" visitations reported by Lucia years after the main events, and is more faithful to the facts than the Hollywood version. Unfortunately, the pacing is often very slow, and the low budget and feeble special effects make the apparitions and climax seem somewhat less than miraculous. This a worthwhile choice for viewers already familiar with Fatima who don't need to be entertained or impressed.
THE 13TH DAY is the latest attempt, and a very strange film indeed. Created on a modest budget by Ian and Dominic Higgins, a pair of British illustrators, it looks like a graphic novel about vampires, and plays like a Gothic music video.
Anyone unfamiliar with the Fatima story will have a hard time following this version. The events are related in flashback as Lucia recalls them twenty years later, narrated in her adult voice. The exposition is fragmented; locations and characters are not always clearly identified. Many of the interiors look exactly the same: bare rooms with whitewashed walls. Where are we? Who is that talking? It's often hard to be sure.
The actress playing Lucia (Filipa Fernandes) is clearly too old to portray a 10-year-old girl. She and the other two children (Ana-Sofia Vilas Boas as Jacinta, Vitor Machado as Francisco) are practically expressionless throughout the film, seemingly disengaged from the drama around them. Jane Lesley steals the show as Lucia's mother. Terek Merlin is an odd casting choice for the villain, Arturo Santos; instead of projecting malice, he seems pensive, half-asleep, and as emotionally uninvolved as the children he is threatening. The whole cast feels under-directed.
Most of the presentation is in black and white, with occasional flashes of color, usually (but not consistently) used to highlight "spiritual" moments. Every shot is a careful, deliberate visual composition. This is admirable when done unobtrusively (see Kubrick, Visconti), but tedious and annoying when it draws attention to itself, as it does throughout this film. The degree of stylization is occasionally ludicrous. Every sky churns with boiling clouds, every forest is mottled with spooky shadows. It's like watching a TV commercial for some dark, sinister product that is never named.
Obvious care went into the special effects. The first appearance of the "lady" is very luminous and beautiful. Too bad the children react as if they're watching a mildly interesting puppet show instead of the glorious vision being shown onscreen.
The big money scene is, of course, the Miracle of the Sun. This begins well, with thrilling images that convincingly reproduce the solar "dance" described by some of the eyewitnesses. But things get silly as it takes on the aspect of a giant earthquake, with shaking cameras and cartoonish whooshings and rumblings as the sun "descends" from the sky. It comes across more like a cheap disaster movie than a spiritual event.
For all its technical sophistication, this Miracle of the Sun is neither as powerful nor as moving as the 1951 version. The weak storytelling just doesn't lead up to it as effectively.
People interested in the Fatima story will certainly want to see this film. But the material deserves better treatment. Someday, a director will come along with the right combination of taste, restraint, budget and showmanship to bring this powerful story to life for a new generation.
It's time, Mel.
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