Catherine Breillat's Bluebeard

Catherine Breillat's Bluebeard is available to watch on Netflix Instant Play, for anyone who has Netflix. Even if you don't, I'd still recommend watching it.

Obviously, any movie based on Bluebeard is going to be dark-if not, it's terribly done. The movie is a retelling of the Perrault story-the plot and characters are fleshed out but nothing altered from the tale. Juxtaposed between the scenes from the story are two sisters reading the fairy tale and interacting with it, which brings another dimension to the story. One of the main themes I picked up on in this retelling was sister relationships, especially concerning older vs. younger sisters. Bluebeard's wife is the youngest sister, and the little girl reading the tale is the youngest sister, teasing her older sister, who is scared of it. I think it's true, as the movie seems to portray with both pairs of sisters, that often youngest siblings are more determined to prove that they are not afraid of things people might assume they'll be afraid of, which is possibly what led Bluebeard's wife to marry him-out of spite and a desire for independence.

The sister pairs are more obviously meant to be connected when you see their names: and this could be wrong because as you see it's rather confusing, but I believe Bluebeard's wife is Marie-Catherine, her sister is Anne. The little girls are named Marie-Anne and Catherine. It's even more interesting because Perrault didn't name the heroine, just Sister Anne, so the filmmaker gave the heroine her own name.

Bluebeard is an intriguing character. The movie portrays him as more sympathetic, so you see why Marie-Catherine is drawn to him. He's still kind of creepy, but maybe if I didn't know the tale's ending I might think of him as more of an outcast Beast figure. It's all the creepier because they spend over a month of marriage where he appears very kind and sincere towards her. But at the end, when he tells her she must die, she's hardly even emotional. She claims she agrees and doesn't even cry or plead, just stalls for time. I wonder if this is to reflect the tone of the tale itself, which treats the more fantastic elements of the plot more matter-of-factly. Sister Anne is never shown calling for help, and we don't see Bluebeard killed. The movie ends with a long shot of her caressing the head of Bluebeard on a platter and looking off into the distance.

The infamous scene where she discovers the secret chamber with the corpses blends the two story lines together. Instead of Bluebeard's wife, you see the little girl who's reading the story to her sister run down the stairs, open the door, and walk among the corpses (saying to herself, "I'm not afraid, I'm not afraid, I'm not afraid-"). It was a very intriguing switch. After that it goes back to the original cast for the fairy tale storyline.

The ending of the little girls' plot line surprised me-that's all I'll say.

This picture has nothing to do with the movie, other than the grave on the left. From stylerookie.

Also! Apparently, because the wife was so young when she married Bluebeard, he and her mother agreed that they would sleep separately until she was older. Was this done back then? I just assumed girls always got married off as soon as they could start making babies, mainly so that they could...start making babies. Why even get married if you're not sleeping together? Most modern retellings of Bluebeard are all about the morbidity and sexuality. We're fascinated by this tale because it's so forbidden (sort of like a young child being told, "you can't read about sex/serial killers-you're too young" like the younger sisters in the movie.) But I kind of respect that the movie downplayed the more provocative elements (young girls having sex, murder), which is sure to generate interest but not necessarily the best kind, and concentrate on other elements of the story, like relationships.

Is Labyrinth based on a fairy tale?

A friend of mine claimed tonight that, growing up, she had read the fairy tale on which the movie Labyrinth was based. I completely freaked out, demanding to know exactly what the story involved and where she found it and how I could possibly not be aware of it, to which she had no answers. I immediately googled it upon getting home and this is what I've discovered:


According to imdb, and Is Labyrinth Based on a Novel, the story for the movie is completely original. The book she refers to isn't a real book, although I wish it were. The above link has great detailed information on the authors and misconceptions people have about the movie being based on a prior story. Author A.C.H. Smith wrote a novel version of the movie, after the movie came out (and also wrote a novel version of Dark Crystal). I would love for someone to write an interpretation of what the book contained, working in the famous lines ("you have no power over me...")



However, I did discover a children's novel, "The Goblin Baby: Adapted from a Story By Andrew Lang." This seems to be similar in ways-a girl is afraid her brother was stolen by goblins and replaced by a changeling. She goes on a journey to get him back, is at times afraid of being kidnapped herself, but eventually the goblins help her in her search.


This prompted me to try to discover which Lang story this was adapted from, and I really couldn't find anything-not that my various internet searches are fool-proof. I did find an interesting tale, "The Hoodie-Crow," that came up in my searches because it involved stolen babies. It caught my attention because of its similarities to Beauty and the Beast-a hoodie crow asks two sisters to marry it, and they refuse he because he is ugly. He asks the third sister, who agrees, not despite his ugliness, but because she thinks a hoodie is a pretty creature. I like that element, because stories often make it appear that there is a clear scale of ugly to beautiful and every girl (and boy) can be neatly ranked along it, when there is often disagreement among people as to which is the most beautiful celebrity, girl in school, etc., even when we're judging on the most shallow standards. The hoodie's wife goes on to discover that he is human for part of the time, and later has to go on a journey in search of him, much like Beauties in earlier tales.


So, if anyone knows of this Andrew Lang tale that has elements that may be similar to Labyrinth, please let me know. But one more thing I have to share: a fake trailer for "Labyrinth 2: Return of the Goblin King", combining shots from "A Beautiful Mind" with elements of Labyrinth, and a random shot of David Bowie not in Jareth costume. It's quite cleverly done:

Another romantic take on Baba Yaga

Romantic as in the era of classical music, that is. Mussorgsky has a piece based on a painting of Baba Yaga's Hut, and here's a piece by fellow Russian Liadov entitled "Baba Yaga."


Also, to read Lucy Coats' well-informed comments and reflections on Baba Yaga, read her post on Seven Miles of Steel Thistles

The Frog

Image by Anne Anderson

"“Do you enjoy it?”
“Enjoy what?”
“Being a frog.”
The frog thought for a moment. “I suppose. It has its ups and downs. Do you always enjoy being human?”
“I guess not. But I don’t have frog-like characteristics, and you certainly have human characteristics.”
“Yes, I suppose speech is a human characteristic, and intelligence is thought to be one too. I do miss having intelligent conversations, but I enjoybeing a frog, I guess, just as much as any frog."

The above is an exerpt from a short story version of "The Frog Prince" I wrote a while ago, in early high school. Usually I'm very wary of "fan fiction," becuase generally the writing is pretty bad. Reading over my past writing is a mix of shame and "actually, that's kind of good..." but I'm not the best judge of my own writing. But as I want to keep all of my fairy tale notes and things together on this blog, I'm including the link to the story on googledocs. (There are some obvious typos, and some edits I could have made, but I think I'm electronically challenged, because I can't figure out how to alter the text on googledocs...)

African Cinderella

First of all, in googling images for this post, I came across images for a Ghanaian play version of Cinderella. A writeup claims,

"The story of the girl who has lost her mother and ends up in a step-family was originally an African saga that the Brothers Grimm brought to Europe and Walt Disney brought to the US. African Cinderella keeps to the storyline but the Cinderella we meet is a young Ghanaian girl. Despite the harsh environment she encounters in her new family, she manages to preserve her integrity and her pride, and demands that those she meets along the way view her as a human being and an equal, even if they happen to be an Ashanti prince!

The parallels with the day-to-day lives of young Ghanaian girls are striking. The theme – growing up in a step-family – is a familiar one to many girls in Ghana, not least because like many other parts of Africa the country has been hard hit by HIV/AIDS. In this connection, theater is a powerful and highly effective means of making people more aware of children’s rights. The impact is immediate.

“When you watch this production with a thousand kids and hear them shouting things like ‘No-one’s allowed to hit me! You can’t treat me badly just because you’re a grown-up! I can go to the police and do something about it!’ it really makes you believe that theater makes a difference,” says Anders Öhrn."

That first paragraph is full of misinformation. Cinderella is not originally an African saga, unless they are referring to the fact that it may have originated in Egypt. The Grimm brothers did not "bring it to Europe-" it was in Asia long before, and probably circulated in European oral tales long before Perrault penned his famous version, which was before the Grimms. Likewise, Disney did not "bring it to America," as if no one in America had heard of the classic tales before Disney made his film versions (although, nowdays, they're usually the only versions people know.)

But the second two paragraphs are really moving.

ANYway, I was going to share what I learned from William Bascom's Cinderella in Africa essay from "Cinderella: A Casebook." Now, the problem with African folklore is that there's no way to tell how much and to what extent the folktales have already been influenced by Western tales. Not surprisingly, Cinderella-type tales are more similar to our Western Cinderella in countries closer to Europe. Bascom shares a tale from northern Nigeria called "The Maiden, the Frog, and the Chief's Son."

In this tale, a man lived with two wives, each who had a daughter. One he favored. The wife he didn't love as much died, and he allowed his favorite wife to mistreat her stepdaughter. She did all the hard work but was not allowed to eat the food she made, so she often ate at her brother's house.

One day a frog spoke to her and wished to repay her for her kindness. So on the day of a Festival, he picked her up and swallowed her, and spit her back out. The first time she was crooked, so he spit her out again and she was straight. He vomited out clothes and jewelry, which she wore to the dance. The frog instructed her to leave one gold shoe at the Festival and keep her silver one. At the Festival, the chief's son noticed her and told her to sit on the couch, and they talked all evening. Eventually she said she must go, but he found her shoe. When the maid got back, the frog swallowed and spat her out again and she was in rags as before.

(Book version of Cinderella available at Nubian Gifts)

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Meanwhile the chief's son tried the gold shoe on every maid, and it fit none of them. Finally someone remembered the mistreated slave girl, and it fit her, and she was married to the chief's son. The new wife went back to the frog and thanked him, and he vomited up many gifts for her. He also instructed her to tell her stepsister, should she ever visit, to do rude things to the chief's other wives, concubines, and to the chief himself, whereas he instructed the kind girl to great each with gifts and respect. She obeys, and the stepsister is deceived into making the household into enemies. For this, she is chopped up and the pieces taken back to her home. The wife asked the frog for one more gift-that the frogs all live in a well by her home. Her husband had it built for her.

Bascom gives us an idea of which elements were taken directly from Europe by providing a list of elements found in previous collections of folklore from Africa, verses those not found at all. Granted, the previous collections were not exhaustive, but still more likely to be authentically African. Though the elements of cruel stepmother and stepdaughter heroine seems to be universal, as well as lowly heroine marries prince, these elements are not found in the earlier collections: abused youngest daughter, cruel stepsister, hearth abode of unpromising hero, supernatural helpers, clothes produced by magic, golden shoes, glass shoes, silver shoes, carriage from pumpkin, magic animal supplying treasure, prince that is enamored with heroine when seeing her at a ball, taboo of staying too long at a ball, or false bride's mutilated feet. However, the element of a hero being identified by a boot test seems to be found several times in African folklore.

Random

I didn't expect to come across Beauty and the Beast over on the cheeseburger network of all places (the home of lolcats and fail blog, among other things) but this picture was on historic LOLs. I was debating whether or not to post it, since I don't think it's that funny, and it doesn't look to me like her knee is anywhere close to his groin...is that just me? Unless the leg we see is his right leg because his left was somehow amputated...

This is Nightwish doing a cover of Megadeth's "Symphony of Destruction." If you don't like metal don't listen, I'm just posting it because the lyrics of the chorus refer to a fairy tale:

"Just like Pied Piper/Led rats through the streets/Just like marionettes/Sway to the symphony of destruction."

I can't remember ever reading the story of the Pied Piper, or coming across it in scholarship about fairy tales, but it's somehow something everyone is familiar with. The only version I can remember reading is Tanith Lee's thought-provoking tale in "Red as Blood: Tales from the Sisters Grimmer."

Fairy Tale Feasts

So I found this book at my library, and I'm always trying to find new recipes since I'm still a bit of an amateur cook, and obviously relating cooking to fairy tales appeals to me. It's "Fairy Tale Feasts," by Jane Yolen (fairy tales,) Heidi E.Y. Stemple (recipes), and Philippe Beha (illustrations). And it's a really great book for a child who knows nothing about cooking, or for an adult who might already know something about fairy tales and/or cooking. The book is filled with tales that are each connected with a recipe, which is a great idea because it gives kids (and...adults like me) motivation to cook, while at the same time helping the story to come alive and become more personal. I liked that, along the edges of the pages, there were fun facts and trivia about each of the tales and recipe ingredients.

The tales are a good balance of well-known tales, and lesser known tales from various cultures. (Of course, that's a Western version of well-balanced...that's probably a whole future post.) Many fairy tale lovers have pointed out the relationship between fairy tales and food, but food is a main feature of many tales, well-known and lesser known, or the absence of food leading to hunger, so the theme for this cookbook is quite appropriate.

And the recipes that I tried were all good. Below is a picture of my apple cinnamon oatmeal-another example of how the book is great for any level cook-it includes the recipe for basic oatmeal, which might be good for little kids who have never made oatmeal, but also includes several variations for a more adventurous cook. (I'm really excited to try the holiday oatmeal suggested, involving eggnog, once the holiday season starts). And the porridge recipe is actually NOT from Goldilocks and the Three Bears, but a story about a magical pot that cooks sweet porridge, but won't stop unless it is told specific words. And of course, one day the heroine's mother tells the pot to start, and before the daughter comes back, the whole town is filled with porridge...

I've also provided a picture of my lemon chicken for your viewing pleasure. And I'm always on the lookout for gluten-free recipes, since one of my good friends is on a gluten-free diet, so I was able to make her some carrot soup (associated with the story of Brer Rabbit and the Tar Baby) and Snow White's Baked Apples. I did not get pictures of them because I made it for company and would have felt weird taking pictures of my cooking in front of them.

Vintage Beauty and the Beast book

I scored this amazing vintage children's version of Beauty and the Beast from 1897 off ebay. I wish I'd saved the images before I bought it, because now I can't get them, and my camera's pretty bad and can't capture close-up details. Anyway, it's made of linen, which is genius-we should still make children's books out of linen and not paper, it's more durable. The text and illustrations are not attributed to anyone. The text is a summary of the Beaumont version, with a couple interesting twists.

In getting Beauty to the castle, they just have her dream about her father's encounter with the Beast and she wishes herself there. It's not a bad way to make the story faster-by the time the father has his experience, describes it to his children, and Beauty has her own experience entering the castle, you get kind of tired of hearing basically the same thing three times.

The other change is, the Beast does not become a Beast by being cruel and selfish, nor from being cursed by an evil fairy. He became a Beast because he wished he could be a pet bear one day. Isn't that the most stupid reason ever? It makes the Beast seem so childlike and unattractive. I'd rather have a cruel Prince who has to learn how to love, or the innocent victim Prince. The cover illustration also has both Beauty and the Prince looking very child-like, which adds to the overall impression.

I've seen one of the illustrations available for different products on etsy. Below is a link to personalized book plates made from one of the illustrations from this book.

Book plates-etsy

Brother and Sister

Kay Nielsen






























In the Grimm's tale of "Brother and Sister", the eponymous siblings leave an abusive stepmother and set off on their own. The brother becomes thirsty and wants to drink, but their stepmother, a witch (naturally), had put a spell on every brook in the forest. Sister warns brother that if he drinks of the brook, he would turn into a tiger. The brother listened to his sister, but his thirst increased. He wants to drink from another brook, but that would turn him into a wolf. By the third brook, he would turn into a fawn, but he could no longer help himself, and he drank. Sister promised she would never leave her brother, and they made a home in the forest.

One day, Brother/fawn begged to go watch a hunting party. He teased the King and his hunters, always eluding them, and returning home to his sister each night. On the second day of the hunt, the fawn was slightly wounded, and a hunter saw the fawn knock and say, "Little sister, let me in." This information he related to the King.

The fawn still begged to go to the hunt the third day, though his sister was very afraid to let a wounded fawn out among hunters, but he insisted. The King gave orders that the fawn should be followed, but not hurt. The King followed the fawn and, when he saw Sister, asked her to be his wife. She agreed, on the condition that the fawn always stay with them.

The stepmother, meanwhile, heard of her step children's fortunes and was jealous. She determined to put her own daughter in the new Queen's place. The stepmother made a great fire in the bath-room and suffocated the Queen, and placed her daughter in the Queen's bed-just after the Queen had given birth. Claiming the Queen was ill, the stepmother would not let the King look in the bed where she lay. Each night, the Queen's ghost came into the room, fed her baby, stroked the fawn, and left. One night, she told the fawn, "My child my fawn twice more I come to see, Twice more I come and then the end must be." The nurse told the King of these strange events, and he watched the next night, as the Queen proclaimed she would only come back once more. The King, recognizing her as his wife, restored her to life. The evil daughter was sent into the woods and devoured by wolves, and the witch burned. As soon as the witch was burned, the fawn resumed his human shape. "Then the sister and brother lived happily together until the end."

Allison Reimold

I was reminded of this tale when I mention Madame de Beaumont's Prince Cherry the other day. Prince Cherry features a prince who is turned into an animal because of his cruelty-first he is a combination of dangerous and feared animals, then with acts of kindness he gradually assumes less threatening forms-a dog, then a bird, and finally back to a man. "Brother and Sister" shows similar results of what would have happened if Brother had given into temptation right away- first a tiger, then a wolf, and then a fawn. Though Brother was punished for succumbing to temptation, he is given a lighter punishment because he waited longer.

Tales of human/animal transformations certainly have many different meanings, but in these tales I think the point made is highlighting the difference between humans and animals. And certainly, there are multiple differences there too, but one of them being that humans have the capability of making moral choices, whereas animals are driven purely by instincts. Humans also follow instincts, but we can be motivated to deny our immediate gratification either by knowledge of beneficial long-term results (studying hard now to get a good job later, saving now to retire later, denying that second dessert helping for the sake of your health, etc.) or to benefit another. Humans also show differing levels of discipline, like the different animal progressions in the above mentioned tales. This is why I get annoyed when people equate Beauty and the Beast with bestiality. If the Beast has the form of an animal, but the capability to love and care for Beauty, therefore proving he has disciplined himself not to act only to satisfy his immediate desires like an animal, he is a man in disguise, and not an animal.

Shel Silverstein-Mirror, Mirror

QUEEN:Mirror, mirror on the wall.
Who is the fairest of them all?
MIRROR:Snow White, Snow White, snow white--
I’ve told you a million times tonight.
QUEEN:Mirror, mirror on the wall,
What would happen if I let you fall?
You’d shatter to bit with a clang and a crash,
Your glass would be splintered--swept out with the trash,
Your frame would be bent, lying here on the floor--
MIRROR:Hey … go ahead, ask me just once more.
QUEEN:Mirror, mirror on the wall.Who is the fairest of them all?MIRROR:You--you--It’s trueThe fairest of all is you--you--you.(Whew!)

"Mirror, Mirror" by Shel Silverstein

(I hope I haven't broken copyright by posting the entire poem...but if I did, it was already on the web, I got the text from here...I figure I'm safe from copyright issues if it's already available at a google search?)

Mirror from here