Miss Fisher and the Crypt of Tears

I saw the Phrynne Fisher movie yesterday — Miss Fisher and the Crypt of Tears — which has just launched.
It was a special showing by Sisters In Crime Australia, with Kerry Greenwood (author) and Fiona Eagger, the producer of the film. We were shown a short film of the making of the movie, and then the movie, after which Fiona and Kerry were interviewed and took questions from the audience.

My photos aren’t very good — iphone pics taken in the dark from the audience, but here is the opening of the movie taken as it happened, and below that is a pic of  Fiona Eagger, Kerry Greenwood (in the hat) and Sue Turnbull interviewing them.  

It was very much a friendly audience — a lot of people there had contributed to the crowd funding that helped finance the movie. There were even people who’d flown over from the USA to be at the launch, some of whom had originally flown to Melbourne during the filming to be in the movie as extras in the crowd scenes. Talk about Miss Fisher SuperFans! And what a fun thing to do.

The event was held at The Sun Theatre, a small local cinema, run by a couple who had also invested in the movie. And we were encouraged to dress up a bit — my friends and I wore  sparkly tops and I wore my art deco dangly sparkly tiger necklace. Champagne was served and in the bar, you could apparently buy a specially invented cocktail called the Phrynne. Not sure what’s in it though coz I didn’t have it.

Miss Fisher and the Crypt of Tears is charming, silly and a LOT of fun. It’s a kind of Indiana Jones with Fabulous Frocks, although the frocks are not quite as fabulous as the ones in the TV series, alas. But this was a movie made on a relative shoestring — and it shows in places. But it’s still fun. 

There’s some fabulous sexual tension between Phrynne and Jack the policeman, too, and lots of lovely tongue-in-cheek subtle interplay that got plenty of laughs from the audience. A light-hearted movie to sit back and smile though. Fans of the Miss Fisher books and TV series will LOVE it.

Some Australian critics have panned it pretty fiercely, very much scornful of the silliness of it and criticizing the clichés, without realizing that Deb Cox (the writer) is playing with the clichés deliberately and inviting the audience to play along — which we all did. There’s a lot of tongue-in-cheek humor and lots of laughs. The critics are not seeing the fun of it at all. A little bit like literary critics talking about romance, unable to hide the sneers. Pooh to them all, I say! Their loss.

Go see Miss Fisher and the Crypt of Tears. It’s fun.

There’s a trailer here.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLvViNHPrvo