User blog comment:Eikakou/L.M. Montgomery's Anne of Green Gables: Fire and Dew review/@comment-4934571-20170705232712

Welcome back and thank you for your review! I was hoping that you would watch the film and I am glad you did. I am sorry that I am replying later than I wanted, but I was in Paris and since my return I've had to deal with many issues concerning my plans for the summer (job, holidays, packing my stuff).

I haven't seen this film or The Good Stars as they were released only in Canada. However, based on your review, I have several thoughts to share with you. I agree that the actors look a bit younger than they are supposed to. I am not sure, however, if it's entirely their fault. I've watched many TV series and films which feature teens and I can tell you that the ages of actors and their respective characters are rarely the same. 17-year-olds play 13-year-olds and twenty-somethings portray students who are 15-18. We are used to seeing not very accurate portrayal of teenagers and we probably forgot how the real 15-year-olds look like. And when we see them, we are not satisfied. Ella, Drew and other actors look just like me and my classmates looked like when we were 15. Some people in real life also may look much younger or older than their actually are (this is my case, I don't look like I am 20).

Anyways, these actors really look like just common kids and I don't think they would be mature enough to actually teach younger students. I believed Megan, but I was not entirely convinced either. Which makes me think about the school system and education back then. How can you expect the 16-year-old fresh teachers to be mature, experienced and independent enough to teach and raise other kids when they are still just children? How can they be respectful and confident? It brings me back to Mr. Phillips. The more we discuss this issue, the more I believe he was around 18-20 when he was teaching at Avonlea school. A young and inexperienced boy who would punish his students because he didn't know there was another way.

I was thinking about the casting. It must be difficult to cast the actress to play Anne when you're making one film based on the first book (like in 1934 or 1985). You want to show Anne when she is very young (11) as well as a mature one in the last scenes. You can either choose younger actress and make her look older for the end of the film (Ella) or you can cast older one and make her look younger for the opening scenes (Megan or Anne Shirley in the 1934 film). The question is... which way is better? Filming TV series with more seasons (like the CBC's Anne) is probably easier because the actress can age with her character, but in this case there must be no radical time jumps. (I think Amybeth could be convincing as the teacher-Anne in 2 years, but not right now.)