The fairy tale ballet Swan Lake gets a seriously dark makeover in the new film Black Swan, premiering at the Venice Film Festival on September 1st. When you read the premise you have to wonder why they haven't done it before.
First of all, this is NOT a film for kids or even many teens. We're talking serious psychological thriller bordering on horror here. It's set in the world of the New York City Ballet company but isn't just a 'rival ballerina meets rival ballerina' plot. In this film reality and fantasy begin to blur until you wonder if there might be more than one way the lead Swan named Nina (played by Portman) is right for the role. A particular scene in which Nina pulls a black feather out of her back raises a ton of questions: Is she under attack by someone? The other ballerina? Her mother? Herself? Is someone manipulating her into thinking she's going crazy? If you know the story of Swan Lake, you'll instantly see how each of these scenarios is a plausible possibility and Director Darren Aronofsky explores them all. Here's the official synopsis from Rough Cut Reviews:
"BLACK SWAN follows the story of Nina (Portman), a ballerina in a New York City ballet company whose life, like all those in her profession, is completely consumed with dance. She lives with her retired ballerina mother Erica (Barbara Hershey) who zealously supports her daughter's professional ambition. When artistic director Thomas Leroy (Vincent Cassel) decides to replace prima ballerina Beth MacIntyre (Winona Ryder) for the opening production of their new season, Swan Lake, Nina is his first choice. But Nina has competition: a new dancer, Lily (Kunis), who impresses Leroy as well. Swan Lake requires a dancer who can play both the White Swan with innocence and grace, and the Black Swan, who represents guile and sensuality. Nina fits the White Swan role perfectly but Lily is the personification of the Black Swan. As the two young dancers expand their rivalry into a twisted friendship, Nina begins to get more in touch with her dark side with a recklessness that threatens to destroy her."
If you Google for information you'll find the big buzz is not only about Natalie Portman's scary and dark makeover (and a controversial kiss scene) but also spotlights Aronofsky (Requiem for a Dream) and his penchant for portraying strong but conflicted women in eerie movies. This film definitely falls into that category. (See HERE for the Times article but be warned - the page opens with a scary image right at the top!)
Natalie Portman is indeed a ballet student and has been working and preparing to make this project a reality for at least the last decade, though I haven't been able to find much information on how much actually dancing she does in the film herself (though you can see her signed pointe shoes used in filming, below). With regard to the traditional Swan Lake dual role of Odette/Odile, which is explored at least in part through the film, it is a principle role and very demanding role. So make the kiddies leave the room before you watch the trailer below - although you don't really see any violence, some of the images are nightmare-making for little ones (maybe some sensitive big ones too):
It's on my must-see list (combining ballet, fairy tales and psychological twists has me intrigued) but I have no idea how I'm going to see it before my toddler goes to preschool!
What to feed a princess and a castle full of people after a 100 year nap - Cecelia Myers has put together a great first banquet for Sleeping Beauty's waking castle, complete with recipes so you can indulge and feast in your own castle. A Royal Awakening comes with stories and recipes to delight your mind and body. This is one of the awesome new offerings from new blogazine Enchanted Conversation.
"Human, It's What's For Dinner", "Yum: Cannibalism", "I'll Take Cannibals for $200, Alex","Garden of Eden and Fairy Tales" - all student guest posts (links take you to each article separately) at Diamonds and Toads on the darker side of eating in fairy tales. Very interesting range of writing and ideas! (My apologies if I missed a post.) Please note: there are many other excellent guest student posts worth reading too - take some time to browse and go back a few pages to see the range of topics.
There's a new book out (released December 9, 2009) of fairy tale retellings in which the stories are told in comics with a rather grim version of a funny bone.
The author/illustrator is Erik Bergstrom and the reviews are using phrases like "homicidal whimsy" and "joyfully morbid masterpiece" so this won't be everyone's cup of tea. From Cory Doctorow at BoingBoing:
The book consists of a series of extremely nasty comic-strips telling the aftermath of the classic folkloric fairy tales. For example, one running gag has Pinnocchio telling polite social lies in panel 1, while panel 2 depicts his sprouted nose gouging out the eye of some innocent (i.e., "Cute baby! -- stab").
These running gags are pretty funny, but the really standout moments are the longer strips, especially the "What a Witch" strip, in which two witches standing over a cauldron extol the virtues of Kiddee Flakes, which are much more convenient for kidnapped-child-fattening than candy-houses. This is good, wicked humor at its finest -- if you loved Fractured Fairy Tales...
For my last foray into steampunk Wizard of Oz entries (at least for now) there's a Wizard of Oz 2007 TV mini-series done with a steampunk aesthetic you may have missed: Tin Man, from the then-Sci-Fi-now-Sy-Fy Channel. It won a primetime Emmy and nine other awards (as well as seventeen other nominations) yet it does have mixed reviews.This article HERE gives a good overview. Here's an excerpt, explaining the story:
Sci Fi’s Tin Man is a sumptuous, modern take on a classic that has us rethinking our ban on remakes. Zooey Deschanel stars as DG (recall Dorothy’s last name is Gale), a wide-eyed Kansas girl whose trip to Oz isn’t courtesy of an ill-fated attempt to run away, but rather a leap into the swirling cone of a tornado to escape the evil, leather-clad militaristic forces who’ve invaded her family’s home. These troops, we learn, are Azkadellia’s, née Wicked Witch’s, minions, who obey the evil sorceress’s every command.
Of course, the tornado carries DG to Oz, only here it’s “the O.Z.,” as in “Outer Zone,” and she isn’t greeted by the mayor of Munchkinland; she’s surrounded by diminutive warriors angrily pointing spears at her and speaking in clumsy rhymes... DG teams up with Glitch (Alan Cummings), a lobotomized former genius with a zipper that keeps his head closed; Wyatt Cain (Neal McDonough), a torture victim DG and Glitch discover inside an ancient metal diving suit; and Raw (Raoul Trujillo), a psychic but petrified anthropomorphic feline. No singing, no dancing.
I saw some of it when it was on and found things that definitely appealed and some things that really didn't. I would like to see it all one day. It's an interesting mix and an unusual take but worth at least reading up on if you like The Wizard of Oz and are interested in a grown-up approach (if you think Return to Oz was dark, this is much darker and not meant for children).I've read it was inspired by ZoomQuilt and ZoomQuilt 2 - a collaborative art/optical illusions that wowed the web a few years ago (note: both take a while to load but do work. Also, the second is kinda dark...). It turns out Sy-Fy do indeed have a flash animation site that's a collaborative artist work called Infinite Oz, which you can see HERE (it takes a while to load but is completely worth the wait). This one is beautifully done. Worth looking at, even if you don't like the idea of the film (see below for some screen examples).It's available on DVD HERE in a two-disc special edition with lots of behind-the-scenes extras.
I posted on this coming-in-2010 comic HERE last week and, seeing as there was quite a bit of interest between comments and Twitter, I thought I'd point you to an excellent interview with the creator Nick Percival.
In the interview with Comic Book Resources, he reveals more about the fairy tale characters he's using and how they've been given a new twist. Here's an excerpt from the long, informative and interesting article:
"The Enchanted are looked upon with fear and distrust by normal everyday folk and despised by their dark counterparts, known as The Wicked," says Percival. "Most of the Enchanted operate as vigilantes, outlaws, bounty hunters and so on - trying to find their place and purpose in a land that is growing increasingly hostile towards them. Armed with a hard attitude, unique abilities and customized weaponry, the Enchanted's world is shattered when they discover that some unknown enemy has found a way to break through their mystic immortality and begins slaughtering them one by one beginning with the killing of the half bionic/half wooden warrior, Pinocchio."
Nick Percival: We've got Red Hood, who lives with her daughter in a very dangerous place known as the Bionic Woodlands - this area is overgrown with spiked bio-mechanical trees and living, organic plant life, populated by mutated wolf creatures. Basically, she just wants to be left alone and raise her child, but the murder of Pinocchio and the kidnapping of her daughter force her to reluctantly seek out help from other Enchanted.
Jack the Giantkiller pretty much just looks out for himself. He's sly, likes to drink and burns around on a beast of motorcycle that uses Giant's blood as fuel. Jack acts as a kind of "creature killer for hire." For the right price, he'll sort out any towns terrorized by Ogre problems, which he usually solves by popping one of his "magic beans" that grant him cool powers for a limited amount of time as he starts cracking heads together.
Filling out the rest of the cast are psychic siblings, Hansel and Gretel (Paranormal Exterminators), Goldilox and Bear, her nine-foot half man/half bear boyfriend. They have a "rob the rich to give to the poor" type quest, which involves them coming up against the crime boss, Humpty Dumpty and the Billy Goats Gruff Biker Gang - it doesn't end quietly.
Amongst these, we've got cameos from Rapunzel, a soldier with unbreakable hair that she uses to attack her enemies, Miss Muffet, Rumpelstiltskin, Pied Piper, Jack Nimble and many others all depicted in the same gritty style with attitudes to match in a world filled with goth-type giants, vampire fairies, pissed off trolls, demon street gangs, and all manner of unsavory folk.
Do you have a favorite fairy tale or fable?
I have a lot of versions of the classic tales that the Brothers Grimm collected together, some great old German editions as well. I've also been heavily into Hans Christian Andersen's work, so there are way too many to choose from. But a lot of the ancient Russian folklore is fascinating, and there are some themes in that material that I'm thinking about including in later stories for "Legends: The Enchanted."
You can read the entire article HERE and see LOTS of (very gory) images throughout (which can be viewed larger by clicking).
All the details of the website, when it's available and the preview are in my previous post HERE. A warning again: please keep this away from children. This is dark stuff and definitely in the horror genre. All these new images severely cropped for posting purposes on this blog. If you can deal with the images though (the illustrations are amazing in addition to being ultra-gory), this comic and the developing story sounds like it's worth checking out.
I've been wanting to write an entry on the show "Dollhouse" for a while now and found a great fan-made video that succinctly illustrates some of the reasons why this series can be considered a modern and dark retelling of Sleeping Beauty.
The show description posted in the info section summarizes what "Dollhouse" deals with very well and gives all the pertinent viewing information:
Dollhouse is Joss Whedon's latest show, starring Eliza Dushku and Tahmoh Penikett. It explores existential questions such as identity, the loss of self, and the ties between mind and psyche. If you enjoy a good story, a beautiful setting, superb acting, complex character development, or postmodern interpretations of myth, then you owe it to yourself to give this one a try. Visit http://www.whyiwatch.com or view the latest episodes online at http://www.hulu.com/dollhouse. Watch live on Fridays at 9/8C on FOX!
On the surface this show appears to be about fantasies, the opportunity to live many lives/have many experiences, watch beautiful people and vicariously kick a whole lot of butt along the way - all the entertainment a 'fanboy' could want - right? So what is it really about? Slavery? Human trafficking? Compromised morals? What really makes a person? All of those and more.
But that doesn't begin to describe the show. It's about identity, yes, but what that means is way beyond "Who do you want me to be?" (the show's advertising hook for the first season). It's about what people really are, who we really are (on the surface and in our essential make-up) and the half-life so many of us live as we try to cope with our pain and our past. The 'dolls' (whose minds and personalities apparently get wiped and replaced with constructs according to a client's specifications) aren't the only ones who need waking up. While it's entertaining to some extent to see the 'dolls' change personalities, clothes and roles (and pushing their acting abilities to unexpected places), which is what the network has pushed as the hook for new viewers, that's the least interesting part of the show.
It was no surprise to see Mr. Whedon tap directly into the Sleeping Beauty metaphor and base the double-episode season finale on it. The first part (episode 1.11) was even titled "Briar Rose" and began with the Echo (the show's lead) playing the role of a social worker/counselor to a young abuse victim and placing the seeds of self-empowerment so the girl can rescue herself. Of course, this foreshadows Echo's own journey through the season finale and also through the series. Here we not only have the metaphors in play of the castle, the spell, the thorns and various dragons but also the vulnerability of the girl (be it the child or Echo herself) to sexual (and other forms of) abuse and how it can be a catalyst for waking up, or for permanent imprisonment of a different kind. Echo has shown increasing signs of self-awareness despite having her brain repeatedly wiped and imprinted with a variety of personalities and it's become clear the real Echo (or Caroline, as we're told her real name is in the first episode) is still in there somewhere, despite it being theoretically impossible.The show had a rocky start and, admittedly, I stuck with the show because of my respect for Joss Whedon's writing and his mythic sense of story. He said right from the start to "hang in there until episode six" when apparently network interference would back off and the true intent of the show would finally kick in. By episode five, I had just about lost my patience in putting up with apparently two-dimensional story-lines that barely covered as teen-boy entertainment but episode six did prove to kick the show into high gear. It wasn't until episode nine that I was won over though. From then on the show has been mesmerizing - intelligent, layered, complex and very much a thinking person's show (sorry fanboys!). I continue to be irritated by the shallow advertising approach (pretty-people-kick-butt-in-great-outfits-and-can-be-the-stuff-of-your-dreams through to iPhone apps in which you can 'dress the Dushku doll as you desire' - ugh!) but "Dollhouse" now transcends that mentality easily. The second season, though still in the Friday-night-slot-of-death, has gone from strength to strength, to the point that people are now considering this to - possibly - be Joss Whedon's finest work to date.In this sense, the whole show can be considered a type of Sleeping Beauty - and one that's not for kids. The way the story arc has developed and deepened harkens far more to earlier versions of Sleeping Beauty (eg. with Talia) than it does to the well known version, complete with sexual complexities and the intricacies of families and consequences of choices. On top of that the show has made allusions to Eden and Adam and Eve. Are we being told to wake up and create a new, more aware society or is this an indication of where we're headed right now? There are different types of 'sleepers' shown in the show in various states of awareness and, without going into detail on any plot points, each of the Dollhouse characters - dolls, staff and clients - are all dealing with being woken in one form or another. Mr. Whedon's work is already part of university curricula, not only for media studies but in philosophy, social sciences and cultural studies. Not even finished it's second season (and not really counting the first five episodes), already "Dollhouse" presents a myriad of deep questions of cultural significance within a mythic yet deceptively simple fairy tale-like structure. I wouldn't be surprised to see this show added to the 'required viewing' list for college students.There's so much more I could discuss with regard to the parallels with Sleeping Beauty but to do so would be 'spoileriffic'. Just be assured that this series blatantly examines the human condition and what it really means to be a person - just as fairy tales do.
If you like delving deeply into fairy tales, you owe it to yourself to give this show a viewing. (I would recommend starting at episode six, which is said to be extremely similar to the original pilot rejected by Fox. You can always go back and catch up later, perhaps with more patience than I initially had, to pick up on the subtle details that contribute to the show's layering. The original pilot is apparently available on the DVD/Blu-ray First Season box.)
Here's a fairly good trailer that hints at some of the depth in the show. It's a little longer than the usual ads but you'll understand why when you watch it:
Once you've watched the series you may be interested in exploring the Sleeping Beauty parallels in the Briar Rose episode in particular, further. I found this blog article HERE which has quite a few interesting observations about episode 1.11 but please note there are lots of spoilers as it assumes you've already watched the episode.
NOTE: If you're interested in following/catching up on Dollhouse, you should know that while it is regularly scheduled for the aforementioned Friday-night-kill-spot at 9pm, it has been pulled off during the November 'sweeps' (I can only speculate why). The network promises it will return in December with back-to-back episodes for the rest of the season, then, after a Christmas break will return to it's regular weekly time starting January 8th. I hope this is a good sign and that at least a third season will be aired. It certainly feels like we've just opened Pandora's box and I want to know what might happen next.
"Hansel and Gretel and the Witch " Rough drawing (study for figurine) by Scott Gustafson
A quickie post to point you to an excellent list of witches from fairy tales and other classic literature by Kate Coombs, also known online as "The Book Aunt".
Strega Nona Written & Illustrated by Tomie dePaola
Her list includes Baba Yaga and Strega Nona, as well as some books for both I also recommend. She even includes the awesome story/book called The Talking Eggs that I found only a few years ago. Please note the actual books she recommends for the fairy tales. I can vouch for the illustrations being as lovely as she says.
Here's the fairy tales she includes:
Hansel and Gretel (with the Gingerbread House architect) Snow White (with her stepmother - or mother, if you prefer) Jorinda and Joringel (with The Witch of the Wood that gturns into an Owl...) The Tinderbox or The Blue Light (with an unnamed witch that gets killed) Rapunzel (with Mother Gothel) Vasilissa the Brave (with Baba Yaga) The Fearsome Inn (Jewish folktale) Strega Nona - she's a good one! The Talking Eggs (Grimm's Mother Hulda)
Also mentioned is Heckedy Peg (which is an original fairy tale by Audrey & Don Woods)
Bony Legs Written by Joanna Cole Illustrated by Dirk Zimmer
You can find Kate's blog and timely list of fairy tale witches HERE.
Want to see what the Disney Princesses would be like if they went to the dark side?
Jeffrey Thomas (aka *jefftoon01 on deviantART) has done a wonderful job of exploring exactly that and has a very cool series going in his gallery. If you appreciate dark fairy tales you'll love it, not to mention vampires, zombies and other monsters we love.
I recommend clicking on 'full view' as there are a LOT of cool details and story nuances you won't see in the thumbnail versions.
Here's a few examples - no passive princesses here!(Um - wow! I do NOT want to meet this Aurora in the woods!)(The Cheshire Cat here is exactly how I envision him!)Yay for fan art!
I hope there's more coming - the idea of "The Princess and the Frog" or "Rapunzel" getting this treatment sends story idea galloping through my head... *dashes away to grab pen and paper*
*Pops head back in quickly to say:*
You can find the rest HERE in his deviantART gallery.
"Awesome stuff Jeff! More please!"
NOTE: A sincere thank you to Bryan Prindiville for alerting me to these! He's a fabulous cartoonist/illustrator himself - go check out his WEBSITE and enjoy - a lot of things to make you smile there.
The fairy tale ballet Swan Lake gets a seriously dark makeover in the new film Black Swan, premiering at the Venice Film Festival on September 1st. When you read the premise you have to wonder why they haven't done it before.
