"Blancanieves" (2013)

Blancanieves is a silent black and white re-telling of Snow White. It's a modern update, often using modern film techniques, but it still feels very traditional, drawing upon the original rendition of the story rather than more recent adaptations. The film's conception of the tale is more Brothers Grimm than Walt Disney. The film discovers dark, sinister undercurrents to the narrative; however, it does this not by making the story look and feel gritty, as many recent reboots have, but, in stead, by falling back on the stark tragedy underneath the original tale. Though it's a consciously simple story, it is one filled with deep emotion. Silent storytelling is not a gimmick here -- in fact, it's hard to imagine why anyone would use the convention anymore unless they truly believed in it. By stripping cinematic conventions to their bare-bones, the film, telling an already simple narrative, emphasizes the profundity lying just around the corner of the classic fairytale.

Carmencita's mother dies giving birth to her. Her father, a bullfighter (Daniel Giminez Cacho) badly injured in the film's opening, is snatched up by a social climbing nurse Encarna (Maribel Verdu), standing in for the evil stepmother. Carmen's father mistakes Encarna's initial kindness in restoring his health as actual affection and concern, but soon Encarna has him locked up in huge, Gothic mansion. Carmen (Sofia Oria, and later Macarena Garcia) is raised, for most of her early days, by her grandmother, yearning to be with and know her father. When her grandmother passes away, however, Carmen is forced to stay with her stepmother who treats her as an ungrateful nuisance. In due time, she reconnects with her father, to the jealous anger of Encarna. We see Carmen, at first, as a young girl, a sneaky scrapper, and later as an adult, a beautiful young woman.

It's largely by the books of the familiar, old story; even the seven dwarfs appear, as does the poison apple and the wait for true love's kiss. Yet it's how the story treats these story elements. They never feel like a means to an ends towards the film's messages (Messages and themes far weightier than the Disney version -- the cruelty of the world, the impossibility of letting go of the past). Moments play out with an engrossing love for detail in the environment, flavored with a distinctly Spanish cultural vibe.

Silent films speak a universal language. This is not an English language production, as this is a Spanish film, and yet every idea, every story beat, and every emotion conveyed reads clearly and crisply. The film is speaking in the language of pure cinema; film is a visual medium and its power, first and foremost, comes from its imagery. And what beautiful visuals Blancanieves has. This is a film precisely composed. There's a fluidity to the images and scenes; one moment passing into the next, frequently transitioning with excellent match cuts that emphasize continuity even as they note significant change. Cinematographer Kiko de la Rica creates gorgeous visuals; this is a film that is lovely to look at. At times expressionistic, at others naturalistic; at times a whimsical fairytale, at others a rebuke to those naive stories.

Grade: ★★★★