Blancanieves

If it hadn't been for Michel Hazanavicius’ outstanding, award-dominating 2011 film The Artist, perhaps Pablo Berger's Blancanieves (2012) would have received more of the attention it deserves. The film earned critical acclaim, winning the Special Jury Prize at the San Sebastián International Film Festival and ten Goya Awards, the Spanish equivalent to the Oscars. Despite being Spain's 85th Academy Awards official submission to Best Foreign Language category, Blancanieves failed to be shortlisted. The film, based on the Brothers Grimm's classic fairy tale "Snow White," is genuinely enjoyable. Considering silent film is somewhat of a dead art, in the way that Sanskrit and Latin are dead languages, Blancanieves is a surprisingly brilliant film. Though there is no dialogue, the actors’ emotive faces are just as telling as words. There are occasional intertitles to express dialogue, but they’re few and far between. The fact that Blancanieves is so stimulating is a testament to the craft of director Pablo Berger, as well as the cast and crew. Despite harking back to a bygone era of film, Blancanieves turns out to be a simple yet remarkably great story even in 2013, a time in which most movies are filled to the brim with special effects and viewed with 3-D glasses. Blancanieves returns the audience to the nostalgia of truly going to the cinema.

Unlike the tale of Snow White that most audiences have become familiar with, Blancanieves allows us even greater insight into the titular character, otherwise known as Carmen (Macarena García). Her mother, Carmen de Triana (Inma Cuesta), died in labor. Her father Antonio Villalta (Daniel Giménez Cacho) is a famous torero who was left crippled after being mauled by a bull in the film's opening scenes. Carmen was raised by her grandmother (Ángela Molina) until her death. She is sent to live with her father and his wife at their grand estate. Maribel Verdú, known for her roles in Y tu mamá támbien (Alfonso Cuarón, 2001) and El laberinto del fauno (Guillermo del Toro, 2006), makes for a great wicked stepmother, this film's take on the evil queen. Encarna is ruthless; in one scene, she serves Carmen her pet chicken Pepe. She also has quirks of her own. Carmen spies Encarna and the butler Genaro engaged in some light sadomasochism. He is the one directed to have Carmen killed upon Villalta's death. Carmen later meets "los enanitos toreros" – the dwarf bullfighters – and becomes a bullfighting star of her own, but not before Encarna can intervene. The film ends on a more somber note than, for example, the Disney film Snow White and the Seven Dwarves (1937).

The Spanish setting of Blancanieves gives the tale a unique and refreshing spin. Set in 1920s Andalusia, the autonomous community of Spain in which bullfighting is still most popular, the film takes on all sorts of possibilities. This, of course, brings the torero motif into the picture, but also everything that comes with that. Carmen herself is the embodiment of Andalusian culture. There is the high-class nobility of bullfighting in her blood, as well as the Romani infuences of her mother. Not only is Carmen inspired by her father's legacy, but she is inspired by a single her mother recorded that has gypsy guitars, fingersnapping, handclapping, and a dance. This Spanish-flavored take on "Snow White" is a lot more pleasing than other remakes that came out in the same year, such as the Julia Roberts film Mirror, Mirror (Tarsem Singh, 2012) or the Kristen Stewart-starring Snow White and the Huntsman (Rupert Sanders, 2012) – although Charlize Theron made a great Evil Queen. Blancanieves is funny and sad, light-hearted and deep, a comedy and a drama that will win over both hopeless romantics and passionate cinephiles.