Black Swan

I know that there are reviews all over the place for the recent movie Black Swan, but I want to talk about it in particular as a fairy tale.

So, with the hope of not spoiling everything for everyone, let me just say:

In the movie, the director (of the ballet) says that Swan Lake has been done to death. But not the way he's going to direct it. Stripped down to its essence. Etc. Interestingly enough, when you see bits and pieces of the ballet, it looks pretty typical--from what I can tell, it's still a ballet, with ballet costumes and ballet dancing. I won't say definitively that they didn't do anything new with it, but from the snatches of the dance that you see, it doesn't appear that he's done a whole lot to change the feel of the ballet.

However.

When you look at the movie as a whole, that's exactly what's happened.

Black Swan takes the concept of Swan Lake (innocent girl falls prey to both magician and prince, and is destroyed by her rivalry with the black swan) and presents it in a modern setting. The movie basically tells the story of Swan Lake twice, once in the ballet form, and once through the destruction of Nina through the forces and personalities swirling around you.

I'll leave you to draw your own conclusions of which characters in the movie reflect which characters in the ballet (some are more obvious than others), and to find the parallels if you want to see it. This movie is not for the faint-hearted; in fact it took me a couple days after I'd seen it to decide for certain if I liked it. In the end, though, I do think it's fascinating and raises enough questions to be worth watching.

Princess of the Midnight Ball by Jessica Day George

Isn't that ballgown just scrumptious? Couldn't you just... wear it? I could. Of course, the primary princess of the story is noted as wearing a red gown, so that just goes to show, you can't judge a book by its cover.

On the other hand, if this cover makes you want to pick this book up and fly through it, unable to put it down except by absolute necessity, and stay up until 2 in the morning to finish it... you'll have an experience close to mine. By the end of chapter one I was completely captivated: Ms. George draws the reader quickly and completely into her world and her story, a very successful retelling of the Twelve Dancing Princesses.

The two main characters are Princess Rose (with an entourage of sisters, of course) and Galen, a soldier who has just returned to the city from the front lines of the war that has gone on for 12 years. Rose and Galen are inevitably drawn to one another as they work to untangle the mystery and the curse surrounding the sisters and their worn out dancing shoes.

I won't give away anything more, but please, fairy tale lovers, do yourselves a favor and bump this to the top of your reading list!

Jessica Day George has a website with book information and news.

Nine Coaches Waiting by Mary Stewart

I used to devour Mary Stewart books. For a few years I read them one after another, until their plots and characters blended in my mind into one intricate and misty gothic romance.

This poetic reference stuck in my head, though, the snippet from The Revenger's Tragedy that occurs to the heroine of this book as she approaches her new home in France:

Oh, think upon the pleasure of the palace:
Secured ease and state, the stirring meats,
Ready to move out of the dishes,
That e'en now quicken when they're eaten,
Banquets abroad by torch-light, musics, sports,
Bare-headed vassals that had ne'er the fortune
To keep on their own hats but let horns [wear] 'em,
Nine coaches waiting. Hurry, hurry, hurry!

And every once in a while some twist of phrase or coincidental sentence will invoke the chorus in my head again, "Nine coaches waiting. Hurry, hurry, hurry!"

So some years after my Mary Stewart years, I read somewhere that Nine Coaches Waiting is, in fact, Mary Stewart's Cinderella.

Well. You know what that means.

I simply had to pick it up and reread it. Although I consider myself much too snobby a reader to read romances (except for when I do), there is something about the gothic suspense of Stewart's writing that makes the romance all the more delicious. And if I'm honest--fairy tale retellings aren't really an escape from romantic writing, now are they?

So with that in mind, let us turn to this particular gothic romance. Cinderella is more of a motif here than a storyline. Linda Martin is an orphan who was brought up in France but was put into an English orphanage. Her longing and love for France engender the ticket to her return to France as a governess for a nine year old boy, Philippe. Amid the lush estate of Valmy and the Valmy family's secrets, she finds romance (of course) and a murderous plot (also of course) but, alone and friendless in a new position, will she be able to thwart the plot before it is too late?

I'll give you a clue: it's not a horror story.

This was fun to reread and refresh, and the Cinderella references were perfect for where I am now as a reader. Mary Stewart is delicious and I hope you'll at least try this one, if you never read another gothic romance in your life.

Here is an interesting blog post with illustration about the abridged version which appeared in Ladies Home Journal.

The Slipper and the Rose

I have been hearing about this version of Cinderella for some time now--no surprise, given that it's from 1976. Starring Richard Chamberlain and and Gemma Craven, it's got the 70s not-quite-historical take on what costumes and hair should look like.

I went back and forth between really liking this, and being appalled by it.

For some reason, *every*single*song* took me by surprise. Now, I am a fan of a lot of musicals, and one of my favorite moments is that building tension, you know how it goes--I feel a song coming on! Never once in this movie. It was more like. We're talking--oh, now we're singing. I am not saying that is a good or bad thing, in fact if anything it kept me surprised throughout the movie.

There are some fabulous details. My favorite character was the fairy godmother. In fact her line about how she became a fairy godmother, and then, "But that's another story," made me go, "Where can I find THAT movie?" Her segments are littered with other fairy tale references, everything from Robin Hood to the 1001 Arabian Nights.

And there's a bit of political interest, instead of just a love story. I was pretty worried that they'd blow that off, but they even managed to make it a problem for Cinderella and her prince, and found a somewhat satisfactory solution in the end.

On the downside: this is probably the most passive Cinderella of all time. If you thought Disney's Cinderella was useless, hey, at least she tried to go to the ball with a dress she made. At least she admitted she wanted to go to the ball! This poor Cinderella wouldn't even admit that she wished she could go. I'm amazed that the fairy godmother even noticed she was upset, as all she would say was "I was thinking what it might be like at the ball."

She is rescued a number of times in a number of ways, and doesn't really do anything for herself, which bothered me quite a lot, even taking into account when it was made. (Come on, it was the mid-70s, not the mid-50s.)

I'd recommend this for the sake of completion, if you are an especial Cinderella fan. And honestly there are a few bits that I really liked--I will say that the king's councilors all dancing around the palace library and singing about protocol reminded me of nothing so much as Terry Pratchett's Discworld Wizards. However, if you are easily annoyed by passive princesses, I'd give this one a pass.

The Decision by RichLayers

After much thought and deliberation, I must sadly withdraw my daily status. Now that I'm working part time and writing full time, the reading and viewing has gotten to be too much. But, that was way too many recommendations any way, right? This will give you all a chance to catch up on your reading lists!

Anyway, I am having a delightful time with this blog, and I hope you'll follow along with me, albeit at a more sedate pace.

Happy New Year to you all!

-Rachel

(Arthur Rackham's Cinderella pictured)