The Grimm Brothers' Snow White, The (1997) - Review by Clara Duong Produced by: Interscope Communications / PolyGram Filmed Entertainment Effects by: Fantasy II Film Effects (special visual effects) Directed by Michael Cohn
Cast includes: Sigourney Weaver as Step-mother Claudia Sam Neill Lord Fredrick Hoffman Gil Bellows as Will Monica Keena Lilli (Snow White) Miroslav Táborský as Gustav (Claudia's mute brother) Taryn Davis as the Young Snow White
Written by Jacob Ludwig Carl Grimm and Wilhelm Carl Grimm Screenplay by Thomas E. Szollosi and Deborah Serra Cinematography by Mike Southon Music by John Ottman Production Design by Gemma Jackson Costume Design by Marit Allen
***1/2 out of 5
Summary: Also Known As "Snow White in the Black Forest" and "Snow White: A Tale of Terror" with the catch phrase "The Fairytale is Over". You all know the story - beautiful Queen wishes for a daughter with skin as white as snow, hair as black as ebony, lips as red as blood. The Queen dies, the husband remarries a beautiful and incredibly vain woman and both Snow White and Evil Queen loathe each other on sight. Snow White flees into the forest to escape from death and the Evil Queen is dogged in her attempts to annihilate her beauteous step-dauther.
Review: I've always been a sucker for fairytales and their retellings. If you've read Robin McKinley's 'Beauty', 'Rose Daughter' or 'Outlaws of Sherwood' you realise that a good story can be told again and again in many different ways. While I'm one of those people who isn't ashamed to admit loving the Disney versions of fairytales, in light of the fact that Disney always changes the ending, I've always considered them to be their own sub-category. It's always intriguing to get back to the original 'darker' roots of a fairystory.
"Snow White in the Black Forest" manages to capture the 'traditional' telling of the story while reflecting the decidedly evil and bleak undertones of the original story as told by the Grimm Brothers. The film begins with Lilliana who is riding with her husband Fredrick (Sam Neill). Lilliana is pregnant and appears to be in labour, evidenced by Sam Neill feebley attempting to comfort her. When the carriage is overturned due to chance misfortune or Dark Fate, the dying Queen can think only of her child and pleads with her husband (in a manner reminiscent of the folk song 'Queen Jane') to save the unborn child.
Sam Neill is playing the character he seems to have been lumped with lately - limp, ineffectual and vaguely pathetic. He was the same character in that hideous movie 'Event Horizon' until the point when he became psychotic, scarred and eyeball-less. He doesn't contribute much to the film as a whole except to make it credible that he would become enslaved by the charms of the evil Claudia.
Sigourney Weaver is outstanding as Claudia. Beautiful, enigmatic and haunted, Sigourney brings a depth to the role of the Evil Queen which has been lacking in other versions of the story. Weaver portrays the Queen as sympathetically as is possible considering the constraints of the role. In the beginning, she appears to make genuine efforts to make Lilli (Snow White) like her and she appears to be tortured by the memory of her mother who was reviled by the society in which she lived. Another bonus is being able to hear Weaver singing beautiful operatic arias in a pure voice - I had no idea that she could could sing.
All that being said, Claudia is Evil and after giving birth to a stillborn son, her sanity takes a turn for the worse and she is convinced by her Mirror that Lilli is the source of all her misfortunes. It is never clear whether the mirror is an independent source of evil, whether it is a reflection of Claudia's inner evil or whether it is a sinister spectre of Claudia's dead mother. Driven by the Mirror, she seeks Lilli's death, sending her mute brother Gustav out to murder the unsuspecting Lilli.
Monica Keena as Lilli is exquisite, innocent and a trifle bland. Nonetheless, Snow White isn't supposed to be a towering spokeswoman for women's emancipation. Symbolically she is the personification of innocence and beauty and Keena does this well with wide-eyed bewilderment and helplessness. Lilli stumbles into the forest and instead of meeting 7 cherubic dwarves, she encounters a group of unwashed, surly criminals (one of them is a dwarf though). Her arrival brings nothing but misfortune onto the gang of criminals who have already endured a great deal as a result of the harsh laws in force at that time.
An interesting twist is the 'hero' character. 'Prince Charming' in this piece is Peter Gutenberg, a young doctor played with stiff, pomposity by David Conrad. Peter seems to be sexually attracted to Claudia and we never really get a sense of any genuine connection between his character and Lilli's. Lilli on the other hand is drawn to one of the criminals in the forest by the name of Will and the two of them share a number of very eloquent and rather romantic staring sessions.
The characterisation of the criminals in the forest was one of the things that I didn't like. I thought that they were the most interesting aspect of the film and yet the time spent on their stories was extremely brief and tantalising to say the least. I realise that it's the story of "Snow White" and not a Canterbury Tales in which each character is given a large amount of time to recount a story, but it would have been interesting to find out more about each of the characters. Will's character with his scarred face and back had a story that was only hinted at briefly.
This is a very beautiful-looking film. It captures the essence of darkness perfectly, but I think it would have been better if it had been longer. The ending was a trifle abrupt, stories remained untold and the little glimpses we receive into various characters was slightly frustrating. With the exception of Sigourney Weaver's singing, the score and soundtrack is unmemorable. Despite the shortcomings, I do believe that this film is worth watching and very aborbing while it lasts.
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