Haven’t seen the film. But it’s pouring rain out and I’m just bored as hell, so I’ll play detective for awhile.
From stillshots, I can see that director DeVito wanted to give the film a kind of modern gothic feel to it and that might be throwing you off.
It is stated that Miss Trunchbull competed in the Olympics in shot put, javelin, and hammer throw. According to her jersey those were the 1972 Olympics. So, we now know the story was set after the 1972 Olympics.
But the hammer throw wasn’t added as an Olympic event for women until the year 2000, representing a film trivia anachronism. So, in this respect, this 1996 film is prescient.
—Info from IMDB, Matilda (1996), Trivia, Goofs.
”‘Matilda’ was written by British author Roald Dahl (illustrated by Quentin Blake) and first published in Great Britain by Jonathan Cape Ltd in 1988.” (IMDB, Matilda, FAQs). But this doesn’t necessarily mean that director DeVito went to the trouble to make the film set in 1988. That would be a lot of trouble for only an eight-year difference in time.
Time to check the stills for cars used in the film.
The cars in this still shot on set are contemporaneous of the mid-1990’s. I believe the red one is a 1991 Chrysler LeBaron. Here’s another shot of it in Matilda’s driveway. Here is a picture of a red 1991 Chrysler LeBaron convertable with a white top, like the one in Matilda’s driveway.
My bet is that the film setting is contemporaneous of 1995, the year the film was actually in production.
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