Categories: films
Date: 07 June 2009 17:15:46
If you were a child in the UK in the '60s and /or '70s it is likely that you will have seen this film, The Singing Ringing Tree on TV at some stage.
I remember seeing it - or parts of it - at least twice when I was quite young. I'm not sure that it captured my imagination enough to sit through the whole thing. I had two main memories of it: one was of the tree itself - with silver tinkly bells - and the other was the voice-over. I was of such a tender age that I don't think I was really aware that there were any languages other than English and I couldn't understand why this man kept talking over the top of the dialogue as it meant I couldn't hear what they were saying.
The local independent cinema showed this film yesterday and I went to see it - mainly to find out after all these years what the story was about. Judging from my fellows in the audience, many were there to relive old times; there was a smattering of children but the majority of viewers were adults - and some were well into their 60s and 70s!
Mr Voiceover was still there - telling the audience what was going on. (This time he irritated me because I would have understood the dialogue ... so no change there!). My memory of the singing ringing tree was quite wrong - there were no silver bells actually on the tree - it just tinkled in a silvery sort of way when it moved.
The film was made in the former GDR and was apparently acquired cheaply by the BBC as a schedule filler. The plot runs along classic fairy story lines: handsome prince (in doublet and hose) journeys from foreign land to ask for hand in marriage of beautiful princess who sends him off on a near-impossible quest to prove his love. Disaster strikes and good has to overcome evil for love to prevail in the end and allows for a bit of character development to take place.
I can't put my finger on why this film is endearing. The plot is predictable, the acting is rather amateurish, the sets are wobbly and the soundtrack is excruciating and it has a very dated look about it. (The princess's dress and hairstyle are a sort of medieval/60s combo!) Watching as an adult, I couldn't understand why the handsome prince should want to spend longer than three seconds in the company of the beautiful but extremely arrogant, haughty and spoilt princess. He marched into the castle, asked to meet the princess, presented her with a gift which she destroyed and he went off on a quest of her bidding. If he'd had any sense, he'd have left her there and then to find her own ringing singing tree! ( I feel sure there would have been an equally pretty princess with better manners in the next country along!) Her attitude is turned around completely later but at great cost - not to mention inconvenience - to himself... but perhaps I'm missing something...
Still, in spite of everything, the film has a certain charm, and unusually (for British audiences, at least) there was a ripple of applause at the end of the film - which was really rather sweet.