An Cridhe Cabaireach (The Tell-Tale Heart)

Showcasing Poe at his frightening best!
This is a very chilling presentation of Poe's short story "The Tell-Tale Heart". The setting is wonderfully eerie and the sound effects make your heart
pound. I bought it as a learning tool as the DVD can be viewed with Scottish Gaelic narrative and English subtitles, in English with Gaelic subtitles, or Gaelic only, but I am really enjoying it, as well as learning from it. Angus MacLeod is quite believable as the villain and his line "Mad men know nothing!" is said with such a malevolent gleam in his eyes that it makes me shudder. I highly recommend it for all you Poe lovers and Gaelic learners.

Lawrence Toppman Review in Charlotte Observer
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 1, 2012

Gael force Edgar Allan Poe
I'm one-sixteenth Scottish, which I suspect would make people willing to lift a mug with me at the Scottish Games but means I have zero knowledge of Gaelic. Yet I enjoyed "An Cridhe Cabaireach," a re-telling of E.A. Poe's short story "The Tell-Tale Heart" in that language.

Technically, it's three re-tellings, all by Gardner-Webb University's Jim Lawrence, who now lives in Asheville. He'd been studying that language online with Canadian actor Angus MacLeod, who plays a madman who murders his master and then confesses to the police in the 24-minute film.

Professor Lawrence told the story through 600 video stills and a green screen, editing the action into a kind of surreal animation. He presents it in Gaelic only, Gaelic with English subtitles, and an English narration with Gaelic subtitles. (The last relies on the reedy speaking voice of GWU prof Joseph Webb, who plays the silent old man in the...

Math thu fhèin!
When the first scenes of "An Cridhe Cabaireach" appeared on my computer screen (I have a very old pre- 2001 DVD player so the DVD-R format of this disk isn't compatible with it) I was struck by just how lush and rich the visuals are - the colours just pop out at you. I found the animation style of combining hundreds of digital photos with high definition video to be very appealing. I'm not sure that a traditional video approach would have worked as well for this story. I thought that the police who come to investigate the goings on at the house were especially cleverly done.

The other unique aspect of this DVDis that it is bilingual - you can view it in Scottish Gaelic only, Scottish Gaelic with English subtitles or in English with Scottish Gaelic subtitles. This makes it a great learning tool for students of Gaelic. Cape Breton actor and teacher Angus MacLeod's narration of the Scottish Gaelic will be very helpful in this regard, as it is so natural and clearly spoken. He...

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