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Author
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Comment
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cmoore0013
Unregistered User
(12/13/04 2:43 pm)
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What would you look for in a new film version of Snow White?
Hi,
I'm writing a script for a new film version of Snow white. It will be a dark musical. I am looking for ideas. Mostly in character development and the climactic red hot shoe death.
We are ahaving problems working the ending into the movie. The characters are extrememly flat.
We really need your help.
Any other ideas like costumes, sets, props, anything is hugely welcome.
Thanks
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Veronica Schanoes
Registered User
(12/13/04 5:47 pm)
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Re: What would you look for in a new film version of Snow Wh
I'd like to see a more nuanced version of the relationship between Snow White and her (step)mother. It's always seemed to me that by opening the door to her (step)mother three times, even in the face of the trouble she's endured, SW indicates that she feels, consciously or not, a deep desire and/or love for the older woman and her attentions. Similarly, the (step)mother's fixation on SW's beauty and her literally venemous hatred, her desire to consume SW's heart, also suggest a deep personal investment the girl--such hatred, I feel, in a modern context, indicates some kind of underlying love, too, if that makes any sense.
My favorite retelling of SW is Tanith Lee's White as Snow, so that probably explains where I'm coming from.
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Helen J Pilinovsky
Registered User
(12/13/04 5:55 pm)
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Re: What would you look for in a new film version of Snow Wh
You might also take a look at some of the other retellings which deal with the underlying issues of the relationship between the figure of the stepmother and the daughter: I heartily second Tanith Lee's White As Snow, as well as her short story "Snowdrop," which diminishes the maternal element in favor of the implied homoerotic and generational issues; you might also look at Neil Gaiman's "Snow, Glass, Apples," and Emma Donoghue's chapter referencing the original fairy tale in Kissing the Witch. There are a great many possible takes on the tale, but I, too, would like to see an added depth in the stepmother's motivations ... and the daughter's reactions.
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Veronica Schanoes
Registered User
(12/13/04 7:47 pm)
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Re: What would you look for in a new film version of Snow Wh
I also wonder who you're going to have voice the mirror. I think it would be cool if the mirror's voice was the queen's voice.
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aka Greensleeves
Registered User
(12/14/04 12:47 pm)
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Re: What would you look for in a new film version of Snow Wh
For an interesting take on both those issues (SW's relationship with her stepmother, the portrayal of the mirror), may I recommend Tracy Lynn's SNOW? (Simon Pulse). Actually, Lynn presents a lot of interesting ideas in the novel....
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cmoore0013
Unregistered User
(12/14/04 4:11 pm)
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Snow White
The mirror thing sounds real cool. I want it to be extremely dark, still keeping the magic element of the film. We have Snow White's stupidity explained by the fact that she's seven years old.
Also, I traced the story way back to it's original roots and I pulled out the story aspect that Snow white's mother is the one who wants her dead and not STEPmother.
I'd really like to put Snow White's feelings in this film. I might add in a scene were she talks to thelead dwarf at night while the others are asleep.
Any scene suggestions?
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Veronica Schanoes
Registered User
(12/15/04 3:26 am)
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Re: Snow White
Yeah, the Grimms changed it to stepmother, I believe, because the idea of a jealous, murderous mother didn't fit with their idea of German womanhood.
I've never thought of Snow White as stupid. What leads you to think she is?
The thing that her being 7 years old makes problematic to me is the prince at the end, because...ew. To my modern sensibilities, of course.
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Crceres
Unregistered User
(12/15/04 9:48 am)
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Problematic
In the version I read, where SW is 7 years old, she ends up in the glass coffin for another ten years or so and grows to womanhood. Of course, the cultural changes of ten years must be interesting for someone who has been out of it for a decade.
Maybe consider what has been going on with the queen in that time? Or what Snow White has to do to adjust...
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Veronica Schanoes
Registered User
(12/15/04 11:40 am)
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Re: Problematic
Yes, I remember the glass coffin. When thinking about the story as a more modern one with 3D characters rather than a wonder tale, though, I still have to say ew. Because she would go to sleep at 7 and wake up and be ready to marry? It gets the ick factor for me.
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cmoore0013
Unregistered User
(12/15/04 1:32 pm)
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Age?
Yes, that is real sick!
I am going to have her eat the apple at age 7 and go into the deep sleep. When she comes back, a significant amount of time has passed since then(about 10 years).
The problem is, I added a subplot about a prince who has been looking for her for many years, because of a portrait he saw. It makes him look real dumb too.
And I don't think that snow white is stupid. She's just young. Young people do stupid things. I don't know too many people who are may age that would let someone give them a gift that is from an obviously threatening person. Also, I'm sure that the queen was not a master at disguises. I saw a version with Diana Rigg where when she comes the first time, she is dressed the exact same way as she was at the castle, with the exception of more eye makeup, a black wig, and a beauty mark. In this version, Snow White is about 16. Now that really makes her look dumb.
I just wanted to justify the threadbare disguises with the fact that Snow White is 7 years old, which would make her more venerable.
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JennySchillig
Registered User
(12/16/04 7:42 pm)
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Re: Age?
You can access a poem on the Endicott Studio site in which Snow White explains to her prince why she let the "old woman" in. This follows the first Grimm version in which the Queen was mother, not stepmother, to Snow White. She explains that she did see through the disguise, but wanted to be with her mother again...wanted to feel her mother's hands in her hair as she did when she was a child, before her mother became a jealous, murderous stranger.
There was a live-action TV movie a few years back that did little for me, except that instead of disguising herself as an old woman, the Queen disguised herself as Snow's real mother. Very interesting twist.
I do like the versions that have Snow already being a young adult when all this happens. The whole "seven years old" thing just creeped me out. And I like the versions that have her and the Prince meeting beforehand. Disney wasn't the first to do this...the Russian version, which had giants instead of dwarves, had the Princess betrothed to her beloved Prince Alexei before her stepmother tried to have her killed.
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Jess
Unregistered User
(12/16/04 11:01 pm)
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Seven
A couple of interesting plugs about 7. Kids at 7 go through a somewhat rebellious stage. I call it preadolescents. You might make SW not so sweet, but perpetually challenging, questioning, and testing limits. Also, when computers analyze supermodels' faces they estimate the age of the face at 7 years old. (there is a scientist at Harvard that studies faces and wrote on this). This might make one think that at 7 most women/children are at their most "attractive" state. You might make have the step(mother) anticipating her child's aging in a positive way.
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cmoore0013
Unregistered User
(12/18/04 1:03 pm)
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Creepy!
The fact that she's 7 is what will probably make this version a lot scarier and creepy. Since it's her mother and not stepmother might make it creepy as well.
I'm also having some problems with the mother eating Snow's "lungs and liver". There have been only 2 film versions that use this, 2001's The Fairest of Them All and 1997's A Tale Of Terror. Both of them did not handle it well. They tried to make the scene comic. I want to make it dark. How should I approach this?
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Veronica Schanoes
Registered User
(12/18/04 1:14 pm)
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Re: Creepy!
Quote:
when computers analyze supermodels' faces they estimate the age of the face at 7 years old. (there is a scientist at Harvard that studies faces and wrote on this).
This is the most disturbing thing I have ever heard.
I met a model once. Not a supermodel, just a plain model. I thought she had a face like blank canvas. We were about the same age and I couldn't believe how...featureless her face was.
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Jess
Unregistered User
(12/18/04 1:38 pm)
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faces
I loved this book that talks about the science behind "beauty" or rather instictual reactions to physical attributes. It dealt with models v. supermodels too. Your typical department store type model does not have the 7 year old face. In fact she/he is approaching the mean (very, very average) with respect to proportions which is why she/he is attractive. Hence, your perception as your model friend as a blank canvas was correct. At the time I was reading this book, I was also discovering that the age of 7 was important in fairy tales so the connection there made a big impression on me, and I remember it.
I think eating the heart and liver would be easy to make dark. You must underplay the scene completely. If it is too ritualistic or done too darkly, it will appear campy rather than dark.
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cmoore0013
Unregistered User
(12/19/04 9:44 am)
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Weird!
That is so strange. I didn't know that age 7 is so important. I knew that the number three and seven were important, but I didn't know about that.
I am afraid that the fact that this film is a musical might take away some of it's dark effect. I'm going for a PG-13, if not R rating. I think that even if I was to put only 1 extra thing that was not in the Disney version, audiances would flip out. People are too used to the Disney version. I have to say that I used to love it as a child, but now it just seems sorta campy. I have seen every version of the story that is put on film(even the Faerie Tale Theatre, Cannon Movie Tale, and some very obscure cartoons). A couple of them have been faithful, until the ending. They always change the ending. The Cannon Movie Tale version was the most faithful version, until the end.
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Mollyzkoubou
Registered User
(12/20/04 7:35 pm)
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Re: Weird!
Well, it's that burning shoes thing, you know... I think people are always trying to alter that. I read a French "translation" of Snow White that was almost accurate, except for two things - they made the girl 17 instead of 7, and they changed the end - when the queen made her final glance into the mirror and found that Snow White was fairer than she, she was so mad that "she lost her head". So, I'm not surprised it wasn't really used much.
Moll.
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Crceres
Registered User
(12/20/04 11:25 pm)
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Re: faces
There was another study, published in Discover, about how people ranked eachother on attractiveness. They met, were asked to rank, and then worked together on some project or other for a couple of weeks. When they were asked again to rank according to attractiveness, it turned out that the people who worked harder, more cooperatively, were ranked higher after the couple of weeks had gone by. The slackers slipped a few 'beauty-points'.
So, maybe Snow White threatens the queen's 'beauty' because she is a hard worker, hence more attractive?
I agree with not overplaying the lungs&liver scene. Since the film is going to be a musical, you might play the scene (or part of the scene) silently, to quietly underscore the significance. Calm enactment of a horror can often be more unsettling than histrionics.
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cmoore0013
Unregistered User
(12/21/04 10:17 am)
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Lungs!
So I should have the queen at a table and just hear her gobbling it up. Or, should I put in dark eerie music with
the sounds of gobbling it up?
I want the film's style to be a lot like Dario Argento's Suspiria(I'm sure no one has seen it. It's amazing, though).
In the film, the sets are bright and colorful. There are colored lights everywhere for no reason. It gives out this dreamlike or surreal feeling. The blood looks like paint, because it is so bright.
The story has a very Snow White looking heroine as the lead. The story itself takes place in a dance school in Germany. Young school girls are being killed by an unseen force. The heroine has to find out why. She soon learns that the headmistress and the staff are all witches.
I still don't have too many leads on how to set up the ending death scene. Please help.
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