I asked people to leave me questions about some of the films I’ve seen recently and today I start posting answers (although you can still leave me questions about any of the films on the list that I haven’t already talked about). Today, I answer questions from The Literary Omnivore about ‘Mirror Mirror’:
Clare: So, Mirror Mirror. Is this the new wave of fairy tale parody? Not mocking the story itself, but injecting humor—and modern humor, which can either go well or date immediately—into the story so that the "sillier" elements mesh better with the darker elements?
Jodie: I feel like I keep reading articles about people wanting to move fairy tale telling away from revisionism and criticism. So, maybe ‘Mirror Mirror’ is an attempt at doing that, while still bringing something new (like you say, modern humour) to the story. I read your review of the film a while ago and I know you said fairy tale re-tellings often feel like they come from a cynical place and I’d love to discuss that further with you. How do we tell the difference between a lack of criticism and an earnest love of fairy tales? Who and what gets criticised and who is left alone in this film? And most interestingly, dish the dirt, which re-tellings do you think are cynical and which do you think are done in good faith?
Clare: How did you like the costume design?
Jodie: I’d probably say I appreciated it more than I liked it. I think it’s so interesting to see film play around with using shiny, strong block colours and deliberately over the top, opulent costuming to create emphasis and make everything look lavish. And I thought the costumes made a great point about the ridiculousness of all this expense, when the queen is so broke. It’s just not a technique that really does anything for me. I just find the costumes really silly and I know they’re supposed to be silly, for art and that royalty really could be similarly extravagant throughout history, but I just can’t get over how bright everything is and the presence of Snow White’s swan hat.
Although I did think the costumes at the masked ball were fun, seriously what is the deal with that hat?
I thought the costuming and the film in general felt like some of Terry Gilliam’s work (most notably ‘Dr Parnassus’) what with the mechanical stilts, the over the top, brightly coloured costumes (especially the masked ball) and the corset winding machine; a bit absurdist but also concerned with meshing fantasy to some kind of idea of modernity and with making the film relevant. Is it weird to say that it feels like this fairy tale owes a lot of the various something – punk movements of design, even though it’s not actually fully part of those movements.
Clare: Quick, Snow White death match: Lily Collins or Ginnifer Goodwin?
Jodie: I have a feeling that Ginnifer Goodwin’s Snow would be best equipped to win a physical fight. Lilly Collins version is good with a sword, but I think Goodwin’s character would just be like ‘head butt’ as soon as she could get close enough. Thieves rules! But if we’re talking about actresses I think Goodwin is my favourite of the two. She’s got a very expressive face and I’m impressed with the way she can make Snow and Mary Margaret seem like two different people. I know she gets a lot of help drawing that distinction from the costuming and the women’s different narrative situations, but I think she brings two separate characters to the screen, but keeps something similar at the heart of them.
Wouldn’t it be excellent would it be to see Collins playing a different character in ‘Once Upon a Time’ by the way?
Clare: How great was Julia Roberts, honestly?
Jodie: So great! She has fab comedic timing and just got the off hand, tyrannical whim thing down. The problem with the recent batch of fairy tale stories is that the actresses playing the evil queens are nearly always putting in such exciting performances. I always want them to side step their sad fates, but they never do. Can we have a revisionist fairy tale craze that backs the step mothers next? comments