MovieChat Forums > Hansel and Gretel (1988) Discussion > A proper Hansel and Gretel film

A proper Hansel and Gretel film


I was going through the IMDB site to see if any films were made regarding, what is to me, the most disturbing "fairy tale" ever written in any country. That to me is "Hansel and Gretel" which is the story of two siblings who are lost in the woods through deliberate planning by their step mother and father to lure them away to restrict the number of mouths they have to feed in their poor household. What takes this story from being one of abandonment to one of horror and terror is the encounter between the evil witch and these two children who basically fence for their lives to save them from being lunch for the witch who feasts on young children to quench her hunger. The story is about poverty, the hard choices made by parents to abandon the ones who are dearest to their souls, their children. It is also a story about survival for the two kids who are kept in a cage filled with bones of former victims and their cunning plan to distract the witch to avoid the same predicament (most famously picking corpses stored in their prison and using the victims' frail hands to justify their lack of weight as the Witch would only feast on those children who were healthier which would help them to have a better taste for food than a child who was thinner.

The premise of this story is disturbing as it shows the evolution of innocence into darkness due to the circumstances that precluded their horrible predicament. All in all, the concept of the Grimms "fairy-tale" is dark and should not be, most importantly, part of the children's early reading. This film seems to take a lighter view of this concept and transformed it into a musical about hope in horror, however playing more with aspects of the former, changing various key points about the original tale. This is why I think, that "Hansel and Gretel" should get a reboot and be adapted the way it was meant to be. I think there are a very few directors around the world who would be able to take on such a project due to the disturbing theme of the original story but I think the Korean maestro Chan Wook-Park would be perfect to see through this vision due to the darkness he himself projects in his various films. This great story needs a proper homage which is dark and uncompromising and needs to be handled by great young actors who are not afraid to delve into the dark side, much like the child actor of "Come and See". It is time to set the record straight on a great story which has so many underlining commentaries on many social aspects and give it the delivery it so deserves and abandon the musical feel good themes it has spawned so far. I plead to the film world to make this a possibility, and not only do I think it would be great cinema (if handled by a Director who understands the approach of the original story) but would attract a lot of attention from the movie-going public who have lost faith after the terrible rendition of "Little Red Riding Hood". Come on Hollywood (or whichever film industry), show some balls and make this film, if it delivers it would truly be something amazing to see as there is scope for brilliant story-telling and engrossing acting if it pulls through. The fairy tale genre is coming back with homages which look less than appealing and such an adaptation would be a breath of fresh air and give fairy tales a credible medium for adapting movies. Let's see a good fairy tale movie because it is long overdue and is an aspect of literature which has never been done justice. With this concept you can at least start to mend those bridges, I think. Anyone there who agrees?

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Hmmm... I would not say, that this movie is a "musical". It is definately a film version of the opera by Engelbert Humperdinck, and the music was taken from it, even the story!

For example the broken jar with milk, or Hansel and Gretel collecting berries in the wood.

Also the songs were taken from the opera, for example the dancing duet, or the song of the homecoming father, or the song Gretel sings about a fairy. Of course the lyrics are different to the original lyrics in german. I come from germany too an I love both the opera and the film!

Some lines like "and nine is one, and ten is none, and much is nil" are DIRECTLY from the opera! "Und neun ist eins, und zehn ist keins, und viel ist nichts".

I never saw this movie as an adaption of the Grimm fairy tale, but as a film version of the opera.

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