Last week I saw the new film by Catherine Breillat, Barbe Bleue, based on the Perrault fairy tale. There was a lot of mention in the reviews about it being ‘Angela Carter-esque’ which really appealed, as I love her short story The Bloody Chamber (thanks Anne :)) and the fairy tale reworkings. There was certainly the menace and stillness, some truly beautiful vignettes and a lot of humour especially from the two little sisters reading and commenting on the story in an attic.
Perhaps because I had the AC story so firmly visualised I felt a bit cheated at certain points of drama. But this was compensated by an ambiguous and unexpected shock. And the painterly image of the young heroine tenderly stroking the severed head – no spoilers here, you can see that on the Guardian website – really stuck with me, at least for the bus-ride home:
Next week…
Inception at the IMAX!