TAM LIN

UK, 1971, 106 minutes, Colour.
Ava Gardner, Ian Mc Shane, Richard Wattis, Stephanie Beacham, Cyril Cusack, Sinead Cusack, Joanna Lumley.
Directed by Roddy Mc Dowell.

Tam Lin is the hero of an old ballad, bewitched by the Fairy Queen. The ballad story is updated to the swinging '60s - with psychedelia and boredom. The film does not work particularly well - it has lavish treatment: Panavision photography, effective performances from Ava Gardner and Ian Mc Shane. The film is the only one directed by Roddy Mc Dowall. It had very limited release. It seems something like an attempt to give an English version of Federico Fellini’s La Dolce Vita with the themes of Michelangelo Antonioni. As such, the film is a well-made curiosity item.

1. Audience knowledge of the Ballad of Tam Lin: Tam the young man bewitched by the Fairy Queen? The world of the fairies and its magic? Enchantment for good and evil? Tam and his being ensnared? The inevitability of death - unless escape to the outside and being saved by goodness? How well did the film adapt the ballad? The contribution of the songs and the lyrics?

2. The screenplay adapting the ballad to a 1960s "realistic setting"? How realistic? How real? How involving and persuasive? Moralising? The film as an updating of the ballad to be a morality play? A fable?

3. The contribution of Panavision colour photography? The atmosphere of affluence? Homes, cars, clothes? The background of Scotland? The mansion? The village? The comparisons with the city? The special effects, the use of colours, montages? The score?

4. Ava Gardner as the Fairy Queen? As Mickey? Her court - her likes and dislikes, whims? Her parasites? The black man? The behaviour of her entourage - idle, pleasure-seeking, self-indulgent? Superficial and chattering? Her entourage on the move? The cars, the mansion? Her control over the group? The attempts at psychological enchantment in the "realistic" setting? Her ensnaring Tom into this particular atmosphere? The contrast with the good as personified by Janet? The greater selfishness of the Queen? Her hold on Tom? The sexual relationship? Her evil and Elroy's revelation of her past? Her beauty, power, possessions, sensuality, sexuality, jealousy, violence? Her potions and her control of life? Murders? The credibility of the motivation? The irony of her failure? The breaking of the spell? The contemporary equivalent of the ballad Fairy Queen?

5. Tom - the ordinary young man, his being ensnared into the court, his involvement, participation in the activities? The sexual dependence on the Queen? His wanting freedom? His encounter with Janet and the montage of their meetings? Their being trapped by Mickey? The church? His change of attitudes? Growing responsibility? The cards and fortune? The week with Janet? The potion? The chase and his survival? The symbol of the ordinary man getting another chance?

6. Janet as heroine? goodness? The pup, the fifty pounds? Her being snared in the plot? Mickey's disdain of her? The encounter with Tom, the meeting, the seduction? Her father and his religious background? The abortion? Her being saved? Her going away, the chase, the crash? The true love and the influence on Tom? Saviour figure?

7. Elroy and his sinister presence, service, evil, malice? The background of homosexuality?

8. The minister and his helping, the nature of his preaching, h-is inability to help?

9. Oliver as the new rival, waiting, biding his time, his influence with Mickey? The elaborate setting up of the murder game? Confronting the Queen?

10. The superficial world of bright young things, aimless parasites? The witches' coven? Her control of their behaviour? Evil, games, frenzy?

11. Tom, the potion, the test. his endurance, his struggle for freedom, his control?

12. For what audience was the film made? A film of the '60s? The attempt at a contemporary morality play?