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Author
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Comment
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Lotti
Unregistered User
(3/10/02 2:12:44 am)
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Cant`t help, but found a nice link
Charles,
I am so sorry, but I don't know the title for the Russian film you were mentioning. Maybe the title was Ilya Muroments, after all?? Just guessing. I can't remember seeing this one, though I have been lucky to see some of the Russian fairy tale movies - as I said, due to the German reunification ;-) Honest, I always envied them their strong emphasis on literature and culture! If you don't go into the whys... Ok, nuff of that. I remembered one of the German online bookstores has fairy tale movies. It's not much, but there are little pictures giving you an idea, if you like:
www.weltbild.de/artikel.p...gId=205040
Also, I have this link referring to the three hazelnuts for Cinderella movie / if you reach the homepage, click on Galerie - it takes a while, though:
home.nikocity.de/3hfa/home.htm
As for the Fritz Lang films, they are not aired often but I managed to see them some time ago - they are wonderful, because their "special effects" both make you smile (they are so obviuos, today) and impress you because they were so advanced for their time. Also, the people are dressed very appropriately but still look very Roaring Twenties... I also loved the dragon, he was so lovingly done in Pappmaché. :-)
By the way, Charles: Your spelling was perfect!
Best regards, Lotti
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janeyolen
Unregistered User
(3/10/02 4:01:47 am)
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Thanks
Charles said: " Jane those Storyteller episoides were mostly written by then screenwriter Anthony Minghella now director (The English Patient, The Talewnted Mr. Ripley). There is a very nice book version of the series published by Knopf, Jim Henson's Storteller written by Minghella and illustrated by Darcy May. He has a very nice grasp of the fairy tale, it makes me wish that he would direct/write one for the big screen."
Right! I couldn't come up with his name on the spot. (Oldtimer's Disease.) Yes, a big screen fairy tale that he aslo wrote and directed would be sensational.
Jane
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renate02
Registered User
(3/10/02 6:30:21 am)
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Re: Another for the list.
Lotti was right - the name of the film is simply "Ilja Muromez" (1956), directed by Alexander Pschutko (he also made the at that time popular films "Sadko" and "The Stone Flower"). It might not help you but a german version is available at www.eurovideo.de
I collect fairy tale film versions and benefit from the Sunday Fairy Tales at the "Childrens Channel" as Lotti does (I am Austrian, what may explain my bad English).
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JAneyolen
Unregistered User
(3/10/02 8:52:56 pm)
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Stepsister
Anyone watch the adaptation of Greg Maguire's "Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister" tonight? While a lot of care went into the costumes and settings, I was massively underwhelmed. All of his careful history (what--two lines about the tulip bust?), sly irony, amazing characterization gone. It felt like a not-so-good outline for a class test on the book.
I adored the book. And of course I understand that a movie can never be The Book. They are different in all respects and, of course, money makes certain things happen. But couldn't they have invested in a script that was worthy of all those costumes? With characters whose changes and choices made sense. And an ending more like the book and less like every other fairy tale movie ever made?
Jane <who remains terribly disappointed>
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Gregor9
Registered User
(3/11/02 8:18:34 am)
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Re: Stepsister
Jane,
It's funny you mention the tulips. My wife recently read "The Botany of Desire," which has a great section on the tulip crash (think Wall Street 1929) and was kind of disappointed at how they just dodged the subject to such a degree that if you hadn't read Maguire or known anything of history, you'd never have known that it was real.
I guess I'm not surprised that the film doesn't measure up to the book. First it's Disney. Second, it's (god help us all) just part one of "princess month" on Sunday nights. Disney's produced a slew of tepid fairy tales with emphasis on CGI and little--at least if the ads capture their essence--to recommend the stories themselves.
Michael Eisner walked on-screen at one point to promote the wonders of these stories. I wanted to put a valve in him and let the sap run out.
GF
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alina
Registered User
(3/11/02 10:48:56 am)
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Re: Stepsister
Jane,
I too was very disappointed with "Stepsister". I have not read the book yet but I did read "Wicked" by the same author and so was expecting something witty an out of the ordinary. Instead I found it very bland and disjointed. The costumes were lovely, but the characters seemed to keep changing their minds about their personalities for no apparant reason. The step mother, played by Stockard Channing, was the worst. When she started her spiel at the end saying something like: Hold each other, don't let go... blah blah blah, I had to plug my ears, it was painful.
I'm glad to see that you thought that the book was good, I'll definitely have to read it.
Incidentally, watching this movie with Stockard Channing made me think of another movie to add to this list of the best fairytales as movies: "Moll Flanders" with Robin Wright and Stockard Channing is a wonderful, beautiful movie, and if anyone has not seen it I highly recommend it.
Alina
(I just noticed that Heidi started a thread to talk about this movie. Whoops!)
Edited by: alina at: 3/11/02 11:05:07 am
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Laura
McCaffrey
Registered User
(3/11/02 1:13:16 pm)
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Re: Moll Flanders
For those of you who are familiar with the literary Moll Flanders, though, don't expect it to follow the book. Moll Flanders the literary character intentionally schemes, tricks, and deceives. In the movie, Moll Flanders is the classic wronged woman. Laura Mc
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alina
Registered User
(3/11/02 3:16:53 pm)
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Re: Moll Flanders
Laura,
Thanks, I should have mentioned that. I saw the movie before I read the book and I loved it. I went right out to get the book, thinking that it must be better, but was very sad to discover that Moll was not the same girl. The book does not have the fairy-tale feeling that the movie does. It might have been more appropriate for me to say that this is a movie with a fairy tale feeling based on a classic novel.
Alina
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Elizabeth
Unregistered User
(3/19/02 1:00:12 pm)
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top ten
I think the best fairy tale movies are;
1 Ever After
2 The Princess Bride
3 The Lord of the Rings
4 The Polar Bear King (children's version of the story East O'the sun, West O'the Moon)
5 First Knight
6 The Mists of Avalon
7 Guenevere
8 Lady Hawk
9 Gargoyles(tv show)
10 Any disney movie
This is just my opinion I love the Dark Crystal and there is a great show on HBO called The Story Teller which is as good as all of these movies combined. It has retellings of stories like The Wild Swans, Tattercoats, and The Hedgehog. Its the best ever.
Liz
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catja1
Registered User
(3/31/02 11:23:56 pm)
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Also...
_Freeway_, with Reese Witherspoon and Kiefer Sutherland. It's a twisted and darkly funny telling of "Little Red Riding Hood." I adore Reese, and this is one of her best performances. Not to everyone's taste, as it's very intense, but it's something of a cult favorite among the children's lit folk at UF.
Catja
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Terri
Registered User
(4/2/02 7:14:43 am)
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Re: Also...
My very favorite fantasy movie is Kundun, directed by Martin Scorcese. Well, okay, it's not really fantasy...it's based on a true story, the life of the Dalai Lama. A friend harrassed me into seeing it -- I though it would be dry and tedious -- and then I went right back and saw it four more times, thinking: "This is what fantasy movies should be like and [prior to Lord of the Rings] never are." It's grand, it's epic, it immerses you thoroughly into a mythic, exotic, alien world. In short, it gave me the same feeling of wonder that a truly good epic fantasy novel does...and with a Philip Glass soundtrack as a bonus. If you haven't seen it, don't waste it on a small t.v. screen -- it needs to surround you: those vast Himalayan vistas, that Philip Glass sound. Alas, it's not playing in movie theaters anymore, but if you can find someone with one of those silly monster-size televisions, it's worth the effort.
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Maatera
Registered User
(4/2/02 8:03:00 am)
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where to rent
Hi
I'm new to your board but had to chime in here. If you're interested
in renting or buying some of the more obscure movies mentioned in
this thread there is a place called Facets that you have to check
out. They are in Chicago but do "mail order" rentals.
They have the most incredible variety of films I've ever come across,
just a wonderful resource. You can find them here www.facets.org
.
I'd also like to second the suggestion of Jean Cocteau's "Beauty
and the Beast". It's just stunningly beautiful. His version
of Orpheus is wonderful as well. Death is a woman and she rides
around in the back of a big limo. I think my husband has a thing
for her.
Connie
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Carisa
Registered User
(4/4/02 6:34:18 am)
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Re: Also...
First posting here. I've been too engrossed and fascinated reading older posts to say anything myself yet.
I second Catja's recommendation for "Freeway". I was going to mention it in another discussion about horror movies drawing from fairy tales. Definitely a bit intense and twisted but also hilarious and powerful.
Also seconding Charles' comment on "Totoro". Absolutely magical! Really anything by Miyazaki is great, "Pompoko", "Mononoke Hime", "Nausicaa", "Kiki".
I'd also like to add "Like Water for Chocolate" and "City of Lost Children".
Also, though not a movie, any episodes of "Northern Exposure." There's always something strange going on whether it references folklore or fairy tale. They still rerun them about 3 times a day on the Hallmark Channel.
Carisa
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Terri
Registered User
(4/4/02 7:36:19 am)
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Re: Also...
There's a review of the new movie "No Such Thing," based on Beauty and the Beast, posted on the salon.com web site right now. It sounds weird and interesting...
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Gregor9
Registered User
(4/4/02 10:29:11 am)
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Re: Also...
I would second "City of Lost Children" but I'm a junkie for Jeunet's films. I think "Delicatessen" is my favorite science fiction film of the past decade, too. And "Amelie" is quite wonderful.
GF
Edited by: Gregor9 at: 4/4/02 11:33:35 am
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isthmus
nekoi
Registered User
(4/4/02 11:06:55 am)
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Re: Also...
A third vote for City of the Lost Children/Delicatessen! They both manage to juxtapose the grotesque and the whimsical so well... On this note of sci-fi, Brazil by Terry Gilliam (sp?) is also a fun one, although I prefer Jeunet.
Lang's famous Metropolis is also an interesting film. It's silent as well. Very archetypal.
The Pillow Book by Peter Greenaway is stunningly beautiful although this is really stretching it as far as fairy tales go... It's more mythical than fairy tale-ish...
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jane yolen
Unregistered User
(4/4/02 4:58:03 pm)
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Not me
I tried to watch the City of Lost Children two separate times, and just got bogged down. It seemed to be trying too hard to be Significant or something.
That storyteling series, by the way, was produced by the Henson Company and is brilliant.
Jane
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Karen
Unregistered User
(4/5/02 3:18:23 pm)
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On a Greenway note
I would call his "Drowning by numbers" a fairy tale film too- mostly because of the visual style.
All the seemingly disparate (but wonderful) films everyone is suggesting brings up an important point- by what criteria do you classify something as a sf or fairy tale film? Are elements of plot or a particular visual style more significant? I was wondering about this when Terri suggested Kundun, which I also love but never approached as a sf or fantasy film (although I can see the similarities).
Karen
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Kate
Unregistered User
(4/10/02 3:53:58 pm)
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Drowning
Karen--
That's interesting that you mention "Drowning By Numbers," which I showed (on a strange whim) in my fairy tale class this term. I should dig up my notes from the lecture, because I had suddenly noticed a ton of fairy tale "things" in the movie, which prompted me to show it to my students. Many of them had not ever seen a Greenaway film and were astounded.
Also--not yet mentioned here I think--I hadn't heard, before seeing it, that "Hedwig and the Angry Inch" was based on fairy tales somewhat--so many gorgeous visual and verbal references--I was so surprised not one reviewer had mentioned that! So much so that I have taken it upon myself to write a long review of it and those motifs . . . I thought it was brilliant.
--Kate
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La
Reine Noire
Registered User
(4/15/02 4:37:22 pm)
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Excalibur Soundtrack
Well...I have the actual soundtrack to the film, which consists almost entirely of Wagner and Orff. Frankly, if you just had a CD of the Ring Cycle, Carmina Burana, or Tristan und Isolde, you'd be set.
~Kavita
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