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Blancanieves: This year's The Artist, only better

posted 12 years ago by sofiameco
16 replies | jump to latest

SARAH NICOLE PRICKETT (The globe and mail)

Those looking for this year’s The Artist will not find it in Blancanieves, despite its description as “an homage to Europe’s Golden Age of silent film.” Like The Artist, it is shot movingly in black and white and set loosely in the 1920s to a compelling score. Unlike The Artist, it’s good.

This Spanish gothic rendition of Snow White is only Pablo Berger’s second film; his first, Torremolinos 73, made him a homeland hero. What better means to achieve second-language fame than silent film? Think about it. Audiences unhappy with the Hollywood endings of retold Grimms (like Snow White and the Huntsman, to name the obvious) will revel in this fantasy, realistic in its sorrows. Berger, like his rad forebear Luis Bunuel, marries poetry to film.

In Blancanieves, the stepmother is a flamenco dancer and the father is a bullfighter. So, too, are the dwarves his daughter meets. Carmen (our Snow White) joins them, becoming not only the fairest in the land but also the fiercest. That makes the film modern, not just magic.

More than a rabbit hole into the past, Blancanieves skips The Artist’s simpering nostalgia for film itself. There’s not much winkery either. It’s too fatal. Here “once upon a time” means “once upon a tragedy,” as it should.

[–] Casper-Von-Kyd 11 years ago

Very unelegant to advertise a movie my criticizing a famous and beloved one. I guess the critics and the audience spoke last year: The Artist is a good movie.
PERIOD.

[–] acaimo-1 11 years ago

As Spanish citizen, I'm getting bored of our cinema directors exploding the same old topics: flamenco, bullfighting and Olé.
I hope the rest of the world don't see us like in those typical/touristic vision. I love my country, I think Spain is a great place to live in, but there's much more music than flamenco. And bullfighting is animal torture, somethign that should de forbidden.

[–] martytamu27 11 years ago

I feel Blancanieves was superior to the artist, not that the artist was bad...maybe overarated. to me blanca captured the spirit of a real silent film. not an homage to one, but this is what an actual silent film would have been like.
the movie also provoked genuine emotion, something thta the artist did not do.

and for bullfighting, it is an art, albeit a dying art. the crowd i feel, wants to see a clean kill and a good show with little animal suffering. If it is a clean kill then the animal suffered less than he woudl have in a butchering facility and here at least he gets a fighting chance at his executioner. and as long as his body goes to feed the needy afterward and the art is stillthere, then i woudl like to see bullfighting remain.
it is much more humane than dog fighitng or chicken fighting or even UFC, people love to see somethign just fight to the death, that I do not understand.
at least in bullfighitng there is grand tradition and a show adn true art.

[–] Hecate-3 10 years ago

I would just like to point out that most civilized people don't approve of dog fighting or chicken fighting either. As for UFC, it might be brutal, but the men who take part have a choice about whether or not to climb into the ring.

[–] PsychoDingo 10 years ago

Spanish cinema is much more diverse than you are suggesting it is

Czech(oslovak) Cinema: http://www.imdb.com/list/7Fxr9DriTes/

[–] ShaneM_Anderson 11 years ago

Why is tragedy all of a sudden mandatory? that is in no way an indicator of a good film.

[–] rubirub 11 years ago

I'm from Spain and this is one of the best movies ever made in Spain.

Great! An amazing way to tell the Snowhite story with a different scenario.

Highly recommended.

[–] napierslogs 11 years ago

I disagree but that's because I think The Artist was approaching perfection. I liked both but I liked the Artist more.

I think Blancanieves had a better screenplay than The Artist (although they are completely different stories, so I would rather not compare them). The weaving of the Snow White fairy tale in and out of this story was brilliantly done. Probably one of the best adaptations of a fairy tale I have seen. But The Artist had better acting and score. The score in Blancanieves was too over-the-top in many places for me and I had a headache by the end. There was also many problems with the acting. The woman who played the mother looks the same when crying and laughing, that's her only scene and she's supposed to be crying, so why not cast somebody who does a good crying face? The actress that played the evil step-mother just looked wrong to me. Her evil face was way too over-the-top. Facial acting for a woman who is seemingly beautiful but actually evil is next to impossible to do perfectly and something about this portrayal just seemed off to me. The actress playing the child Carmencita was fantastic, I loved her! But when she was older, I lost any emotional connection to her. I'm not sure what happened, but I no longer cared about her.

The review's comparison to The Artist is only to incite uproar by saying something controversial. People talk about, she gets more readers. It's just a cheap ploy.

[–] Sxilderik 11 years ago

I agree.

I'm french, and though I really like Jean Dujardin in some of this movies (OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies, a blast!), I honestly did not think much of The Artist, which I saw only because the USA seemed to love it so much. Very simple and predictable plot, and only so-so acting performance.

I saw Blancanieves yesterday, and it was a shock. Wonderful picture, music, acting, and story.

Oscar set aside, I reckon the spanish movie should be the one to deserve fame and praise in the future, in the black-and-white mute film of the 2010s category, while the Artist will slowly but surely drift toward oblivion.

Edit: typo
____________________
'Cause what you hears today you got to tell the birthed tomorrow.

[–] Sxilderik 11 years ago

Just a technical trifle: mother was a flamenco dancer and singer, stepmother is a former nurse.
____________________
'Cause what you hears today you got to tell the birthed tomorrow.

[–] PsychoDingo 10 years ago

here's to accuracy

Czech(oslovak) Cinema: http://www.imdb.com/list/7Fxr9DriTes/

[–] moviewizguy 11 years ago

Pretention layered in pretention. The Artist is a terrific film.

[–] silverscreenimage 11 years ago

Pretentiousness aside, I really thought The Artist was boring and slow. Just when it felt like the pace and the story were starting to pick up again, nothing would happen. It felt like the director couldn't decide what to cut out because he was too in love with his work and would really milk the visuals until I felt like I was saying "Alright, I get it, it's pretty...can we move the story along please?". That's the reason I'm checking out Blancanieves on IMDb, because I was invited to see it tonight and I'm hesitant. If it's anything like The Artist, I'm out.

[–] liscarkat-2 11 years ago

"set loosely in the 1920s"

The magazine the stepmother is reading is tightly dated: 1929.

[–] MrEdnablackadder 11 years ago

I liked "Blancanieves" a lot, but personally I thought "The Artist" had a more authentic feeling to it. "Blancanieves" had a very clever script which gave us a dark, adult retelling of a classic fairy tale (which is something we've seen before, althought this doesn't diminish Berger's achievement), but I believe it would have made no difference if it was actually a talkie. "The Artist", on the other hand, perfectly followed the rules and mechanisms of the quintessential silent movie.

Talking about the acting, Maribel Verdú was amazing here and she totally stole the show, but the other performances, while solid, hardly lingered in memory. I thought "The Artist" had a stronger ensamble overall, with Jean and Bérénice on top, obviously.

Anyway, my vote goes to "The Artist", but they're both little gems that deserve all the kudos they can get. I heard that Berger will likely do some other silent movies after the success of this. Looking forward to it.

[–] PoppyTransfusion 10 years ago

I prefered The Artist too although Blancanieves was more beautiful to look at than The Artist and Maribel Verdu terrific as Encarna. I didn't like the humour in Blancanieves whilst the humour worked well in The Artist which had a touch of whimsy to it.

I believe it would have made no difference if it was actually a talkie

This is true. In Blancanieves the characters often mouthed their words which changed how they acted and used their faces and bodies.

I give my respect to those who have earned it; to everyone else, I'm civil.