Last year, Hollywood coughed up two takes on Snow White: one camp,
one dark, neither much cop. Director Pablo Berger’s free interpretation
of the Grimm tale offers another angle, both camp and dark, and
the result comfortably tops its bigger-budgeted contemporaries by every
possible measure: more fun, more stylish and decidedly more
memorable.
Set in 1920s Seville, the fairy tale’s key components are given bold
makeovers, as the orphaned daughter of a matador father and flamenco
star mother joins a travelling troupe of (six) bull-fighting dwarves,
with a bandana-wearing rooster named Pepe as her confidant and a wicked
stepmother (played with deranged glamour by Maribel Verdú) plotting her
demise. Both silent and monochromatic, Berger evokes the filmmaking
fashions of the period in which Blancanieves is set, with
iris-in wipes and title cards building a cinephile-pleasing pastiche.
But like its iconic apple, there’s poison under Blancanieves’
skin, with happy endings replaced by a desperately sad conclusion of
which the hardened Grimms would doubtlessly have approved.
On select release now
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