The Enchanted Screen: The Unknown History of Fairy-Tale Films by Jack Zipes

The Enchanted Screen: The Unknown History of Fairy-Tale Films by Jack Zipes is the book that inspired this month's fairy tale film month along with all of the fairy tale film releases on the near horizon. I am also giving away one copy to a name drawn from the list of guest posters this month--you still have time to submit your own. The guest posts have inspired more comments and discussion than my regular posts, so thank you to all who have participated.

This is an essential book if you are wanting to read about fairy tale film history and analysis. First of all, it's by Jack Zipes. He's one of the most published voices in fairy tale studies and deservedly so. No, you may not always agree with his opinions and conclusions, but you need to know them. Also, this book discusses a wider range of films than similar books attempt. It's not just the greatest hits as I like to call them, such as Disney and Shrek and Company of Wolves, for example.

Which brings me to the two goldmines of the book: The Bibliography and The Filmography. The bibliography of any academic book is always a critical element of the book, leading you to more research and resources you may have missed. The one in this book is excellent. But the Filmography is wonderful, too. Zipes states it is a first "stab" at compiling a comprehensive list of fairy tale films. It's the most comprehensive I have seen to date. I would have loved to have had it when SurLaLune was new and I was compiling my own limited lists with limited resources.

Book description from the publisher:

The Enchanted Screen: The Unknown History of Fairy-Tale Films offers readers a long overdue, comprehensive look at the rich history of fairy tales and their influence on film, complete with the inclusion of an extensive filmography compiled by the author.　 With this book, Jack Zipes not only looks at the extensive, illustrious life of fairy tales and cinema, but he also reminds us that, decades before Walt Disney made his mark on the genre, fairy tales were central to the birth of cinema as a medium, as they offered cheap, copyright-free material that could easily engage audiences not only though their familiarity but also through their dazzling special effects.
　
Since the story of fairy tales on film stretches far beyond Disney, this book, therefore, discusses a broad range of films silent, English and non-English, animation, live-action, puppetry, woodcut, montage (Jim Henson), cartoon, and digital. Zipes, thus, gives his readers an in depth look into the special relationship between fairy tales and cinema, and guides us through this vast array of films by tracing the adaptations of major fairy tales like "Little Red Riding Hood," "Cinderella," "Snow White," "Peter Pan," and many more, from their earliest cinematic appearances to today.
　
Full of insight into some of our most beloved films and stories, and boldly illustrated with numerous film stills, The Enchanted Screen, is essential reading for film buffs and fans of the fairy tale alike.

Table of Contents (what I always look at first):

Preface

Acknowledgments

Prologue

Part I

1. Filmic Adaptation and Appropriation of the Fairy Tale

2. De-Disneyfying Disney: Notes on the Development of the Fairy-Tale Film

3. Georges Méliès: Pioneer of the Fairy-Tale Film and the Art of the Ridiculous

4. Animated Fairy-tale Cartoons: Celebrating the Carnival Art of the Ridiculous

5. Animated Feature Fairy-Tale Films

Part II


6. Cracking the Magic Mirror: Re-Presentations of Snow White

7. The Trials and Tribulations of Little Red Riding Hood Revisited and Reviewed

8. Bluebeard's Original Sin and the Rise of Serial Killing, Mass Murder, and Fascism

9. The Triumph of the Underdog: Cinderella’s Legacy

10. Abusing and Abandoning Children: "Hansel and Gretel," "Tom Thumb," "The Pied Piper," "Donkey-Skin," and "The Juniper Tree"

11. Choosing the Right Mate: Why Beasts and Frogs Make for Ideal Husbands

12. Andersen’s Cinematic Legacy: Trivialization and Innovation

Part III

13. Adapting Fairy-Tale Novels

14. Between Slave Language and Utopian Optimism: Neglected Fairy-Tale Films of Central and Eastern Europe

15. Fairy-Tale Films in Dark Times: Breaking Molds, Seeing the World Anew

Bibliography

Filmography

Some reviews:

"Jack Zipes takes us beyond Disney and DreamWorks to the many films that draw on fairy-tale sorcery for their cinematic power. With fierce analytic energy, encyclopedic inclusiveness, and imaginative verve, he enlivens an expansive history that reaches back to Georges Méliès's enchantments and ends with the complex grotesqueries of Pan's Labyrinth and Little Otik." —Maria Tatar, Harvard University

"The Enchanted Screen is a labor of love and a major work of scholarship, encyclopedic in reach and rich in sustained and detailed thinking. The ‘unknown history’ of fairy-tale film is lucky to have found such a skilled and dedicated narrator." —Stephen Benson, University of East Anglia Norwich

"Last year, Zipes (emer., Univ. of Minnesota) contributed a foreword for Fairy Tale Films: Visions of Ambiguity (CH, Mar'11, 48-3760), a delightful collection edited by Pauline Greenhill and Sidney Eve Matrix. This year, Zipes presents an extensive, well-organized study of fairy tales in the film genre. Zipes's knowledge of films from a wide variety of cultures is admirable. In the silent era, fairy tales provided filmmakers worthy material free of copyright expense. From the 1930s on, the film industry was able to put old wine into new bottles with both color and sound, a la Walt Disney and filmmakers in other parts of the world. Taking a fresh approach to major films, Zipes avoides the heavy use of jargon and instead offers clear, direct commentary on the films themselves and their oral and literary sources ... Zipes gives the reader 10 pages of endnotes, 12 pages of bibliography, 38 pages of filmography, and a thorough index--all in fine print. The influence of this book will extend for decades. Summing Up: Essential. All readers."
--CHOICE, June 2011 (R. Blackwood, City Colleges of Chicago)

Three Wishes for Cinderella (Tri Orisky Pro Popelku)

 

When I first started SurLaLune almost thirteen(!) years ago, I was innundated with several frequently asked questions that I rarely receive now--mostly because I have incorporated answers on the site and because the breadth of information on the internet has grown. And, yes, SurLaLune, predates Google a little, too. I remember Google in Beta. But one of the frequently asked questions was from many, many readers trying to identify this movie: Three Wishes for Cinderella (Tri Orisky Pro Popelku), also known as Three Nuts for Cinderella.

To be honest, this has been on my to-be-watched list for years, but I have never seen it from start to finish. What I have seen is appealing. But this is a fan favorite, the favorite film Cinderella for many and one that slipped my mind the other day when I discussed other Cinderella films.

The DVDs are out of print again, but again, someone has posted the film in parts on YouTube. I'm embedding a few chapters here. Has anyone reading here seen this?

New Picture Book Series: The Other Side of the Story

This new series--The Other Side of the Story--launched last month with four titles. Yes, it is inspired by The True Story of the Three Little Pigs and its imitators. But it looks fun and modern and plays with some classroom favorites, so here we go....

Honestly, Red Riding Hood Was Rotten!; The Story of Little Red Riding Hood as Told by the Wolf (The Other Side of the Story) by Trisha Speed Shaskan and illustrated by Gerald Guerlais.

OF COURSE you think I did a horrible thing by eating Little Red Riding Hood and her granny. You don't know the other side of the story. Well, let me tell you...

Seriously, Cinderella Is SO Annoying!; The Story of Cinderella as Told by the Wicked Stepmother (The Other Side of the Story) by Trisha Sue Speed Shaskan and illustrated by Gerald Guerlais.

OF COURSE you think Cinderella was the sweetest belle of the ball. You don't know the other side of the story. Well, let me tell you...

Trust Me, Jack's Beanstalk Stinks!;The Story of Jack and the Beanstalk as told by the Giant (The Other Side of the Story) by Eric Mark Braun and illustrated by Cristian Bernardini.

OF COURSE you think I was the bad guy, terrifying poor little Jack. You don't know the other side of the story. Well, let me tell you...

Believe Me, Goldilocks Rocks!; The Story of the Three Bears as Told by Baby Bear (The Other Side of the Story) by Nancy Jean Loewen and illustrated by Tatevik Avakyan.

OF COURSE you think Goldilocks was a brat who broke in and trashed our house. You don't know the other side of the story. Well, let me tell you...

Film Month: Ever After - A Cinderella Story and Other Cinderellas

Ever After - A Cinderella Story keeps getting mentioned in the discussions about fairy tale films this month, but it hasn't been discussed itself. One commenter even called it a guilty pleasure. I don't consider it a guilty pleasure but an authentic one. In truth, it is one of the few Cinderella films I have been able to watch repeatedly although I haven't seen it in years. But this month's film theme has made me consider a rewatch sometime soon. (Maybe I will if I tire of watching New Tricks anytime soon. Which I doubt since I have only watched two seasons and have six more to go. Thank goodness. My tv viewing time is limited and I like to be entertained.)

Yes, the film is flawed, but it is watchable and makes Cinderella admirable for modern sensibilities. Leonardo Da Vinci as the fairy godmother character has always been fun for me. And his portrait that is reworked for the film was on a wall in our house when I was a very young child so I was sentimentally drawn to it, too.) I remember going to see it out of curiosity touched with dread but being entertained and walking out happy overall.

So what are your favorite film versions of Cinderella? Mine are Slipper and the Rose, the Julie Andrews version of Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella and Ever After. Yes, I am able to rewatch the Disney on occasion, but it is not among my preferred Disney fairy tales.

 

A Trip to the Country by Henriette-Julie de Castelnau, Comtesse de Murat

I recently received a review copy of A Trip to the Country (Fairy-Tale Studies) by Henriette-Julie de Castelnau, Comtesse de Murat, edited and translated by Perry Gethner and Allison Stedman. This is part of Wayne State University Press's Fairy Tale Series and a more unusual offering.

Description from the publisher:

Popular with the worldly aristocracy, late seventeenth-century experimental novels like the Countess de Murat’s Voyage de campagne (A Trip to the Country) were published in small format, widely circulated, and reprinted more frequently than any other type of fiction both in France and abroad. Murat’s hybrid work, built around a humorous frame narrative, details a trip to a pristine country estate taken by seven Parisian aristocrats and contains interpolated examples of the period’s most popular literary forms—including seven ghost stories, seven autobiographical anecdotes, one literary fairy tale, one rondeau, two gallant poems, two love letters, and eleven proverb comedies.

In this translation of A Trip to the Country, editors Perry Gethner and Allison Stedman present the entire work in the English language for the first time. The editors follow the original 1699 edition as closely as possible to preserve the syntax, word choice, and other lively, readable qualities that were appreciated by the novel’s first readers. Modern readers will value the editors’ extensive footnotes to the text that offer additional definitions, historical referents, and notes on form and structure. An extensive introduction by Allison Stedman also draws connections between the late seventeenth-century experimental novel and the rise of the literary fairy-tale genre in France to provide a valuable context for students and scholars of the field.

Gethner and Stedman offer an accessible and informative translation of A Trip to the Country that will appeal to students and teachers of fairy-tale studies and those interested in the history of French literature.

Intriguing, yes? Stedman's introduction is interesting and to anyone who is fascinated with the French salon and fairy tale movements--as I am--this book provides a charming extra with both the translated text and the intro. Stedman discusses Murat's fairy tale work in general as well as A Trip to the Country. Murat writing about the nobility was somewhat different from her contemporaries. But really, you just need to read Stedman's introduction to understand it all.

As for Murat's book, it is surprisingly charming and easy to read. I haven't read the original French, but the translation is very approachable. I expected a rather dry text, I admit, and didn't find one here. The tone is conversational and at times I forgot the source text was several centuries old. Yes, the signs are there, but it is not so heavy handed as similar volumes. Murat is rather delightful.

Oh, and here are some blurbs for the book, too, courtesy of the publisher:

“In A Trip to the Country the famous writer of fairy tales brings her fascination with other worlds down to earth in a beautiful narrative blending magic and the supernatural with a vision of the perfect country getaway. The translation is true to Murat’s delicate and conversational style; the tale itself is captivating. Gethner and Stedman’s notes and introduction provide readers with an excellent guide to Murat’s work and its place in literary history, philosophy, and politics in the age of Versailles.”

— Elizabeth C. Goldsmith, professor of French in the Department of Romance Studies at Boston University

“The century was about to turn, and no one knew where the novel was going. Murat’s A Trip to the Country reminds us how important the devices of heroic romance remained to generations of ancien régime novelists seeking to modernize them.”

— Nicholas Paige, associate professor and head graduate advisor in the Department of French at University of California–Berkeley

“Gethner and Stedman make available a late seventeenth-century French novel significant for its experimentation with prose, verse, and theatrical forms and its treatment of themes especially prominent in later fiction. This critical translation is a welcome contribution for specialists of ancien régime French literature and history and also to readers of novels and fairy tales.”

— Lewis Seifert, professor of French Studies at Brown University

Puss in Boots (2009) Trailer

So what do I post about a movie that takes its name and title character directly from a fairly well-known fairy tale and then does pretty much nothing with said fairy tale? It's more Zorro and modern day parody than anything else. Yes, I am obviously talking about Puss in Boots which I was reminded of with the trailer this week while watching something with my husband. The most folklore I'm seeing is Humpty Dumpty and a quick glimpse of some beanstalk like plants that may or may not riff on Jack and the Beanstalk. There are Jack and Jill listed as primary characters, too, so there is more nursery rhyme than fairy tale present so far.

The trailer is funny though. I think most of the top cat cliches were addressed in it. Of course, the main plot appears to be one of the biggest Hollywood cliches of all, saving the world from an evil villain that threatens complete destruction. Ugh. I would have preferred a little bit more reference to the original tale since that would have been more interesting...at least to me.

Of course, this is a spin-off of the Shrek series. I enjoyed the first one and the others, not so much. But if Puss gets decent reviews, I will probably see it.

Perhaps my favorite part of the whole thing is how much the character's appearance was based on Gustave Dore's interpretation, very French, but transformed into a very Spanish character for Banderas.




So what do you think?

Alice's Adventures at eBook Treasures

This is slightly off topic, I guess, but this recent article caught my interest and then my imagination: British Library releases rare titles as ebooks by Shane Redmond.

The British Library has made Lewis Carroll’s handwritten and illustrated version of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland available as an enhanced ebook.

***

Also available are Jane Austen’s History of England - a 1791 work that the author completed when she was just 15 - and William Blake’s Notebook. Leonardo Da Vinci’s Codex Arundel is also available and includes the ability to flip Leonardo’s mirror writing.

Jamie Andrews, head of English and drama at the British Library, said the release of Lewis Carroll’s manuscript would give people the chance to explore a book that is so fragile that very few people are allowed to view it.

***

The British Library’s eBook Treasures series is being produced by Armadillo Systems and the Library plans to release 75 titles over the next two years, allowing readers to explore some of the world’s most rare works.

The Library also has some apps, including one summarising British Library Treasures and another that contains scans of 19th century books from the Library’s collection.

Mr Andrews said the availability of the ebooks would be ideal for scholars, not all of whom are able to travel to London to view the original works for themselves. “It will democratise research,” he said. But he added: “There are still many important reasons why you would want to see the physical object.”

The eBook Treasures website is available here.

So essentially this is a few steps above what we can find at such wonderful online book collections as at Google Books, Internet Archives and Gutenberg. These are the types of developments that make me a fan of modern technology. As someone who has been hunting rare books for years more for content than the object, I am thrilled. Yes, the object is a wondrous thing, but the information inside is what continues my work. No, I'd rather not be limited to a Mac app, but that will eventually expand, too.

So what fairy tale/folklore books would be on your wishlist for a collection like this?

Guilty Pleasures: Fairy Tale Films

 

In the past year or so, Hollywood has entered a trend of dark interpretation of fairy tales aimed primarily at a teen audience such as this year's Beastly and Red Riding Hood and the long list of upcoming projects. But not so long ago, less than ten years actually, the trend was towards modern, light-hearted interpretations of fairy tales. There were A Cinderella Story, Sydney White and Aquamarine as the most memorable. And, of course, watching these reminds me of Splash, another Little Mermaid riff from 27 years ago.

To be frank, these types of movies are more my style than the straight or wanna be horror films. We've established long ago that I am not a horror van--especially not visually--and I find those films overall remove the hope and humor that can be found in fairy tales. On the other hand, while I am not rushing out to see these other ones either, I often end up enjoying them on the guilty pleasures level. Sydney White certainly qualified for that. I was amused with the ways the fairy tale was interpreted onto a modern college campus, dorks/dwarfs included. It offered a light-hearted Sunday night family viewing to many of my family members when I first saw it.

That said, I do find many of the made-for-tv versions to be nearly unwatchable. The Frog Prince has inspired a few tv movies in recent years and I couldn't sit through any of them without a finger on the fast forward button. Just not for me. Same thing with the SyFy/SciFi Channel films. They were painful for me and could only have been improved with a group of friends giving them the old MST3K treatment.

So what are your guilty pleasure fairy tale film interpretations? I know for most readers/lurkers it will be Disney, but are there others?

On Beauty and the Beast... at Tales of Faerie

With all of the Beauty and the Beast talk this week, I wanted to make sure readers here also saw Kristin's recent B&B post at Tales of Faerie, On Beauty and the Beast... Kristin's focus is on Betsy Hearne's Beauty and the Beast: Visions and Revisions of an Old Tale. Here's a bit to tease you into clicking over:

I can literally open this book up to any page and know I'll find something beautifully written and thought provoking...however, one little comment-why does Beauty always get accused of initally judging the Beast by appearances? I think she's actually more than decent to him initially, and if she shows fear or loathing it probably has something to do with the fact that he threatened to kill her father for no reason. Even if not, did we expect her to accept a marriage proposal on the first night of their acquaintance?

Kristin also discusses Beastly briefly, comparing the book vs. the film.

 

Tales of Faerie is a great blog and one of my favorites for extra fairy tale reading. Kristin's post aren't as frequent as mine--I'm sure she knows just how time consuming maintaining a regular blog can be--but she also offers more of her personal opinions and discoveries to add interpretations to what she writes about. I am often tempted to point to most of her posts, but I try not to share too many "look at this other blog" posts since I hope many of you are already reading her independently and don't want to preach to the choir.

Aladdin and His Wonderful Lamp, in Rhyme (Calla Editions)

Aladdin and His Wonderful Lamp, in Rhyme (Calla Editions) is another new release in Dover's Calla Editions line. This one is by Arthur Ransome and illustrated by Thomas Mackenzie. I'm not as familiar with this book but I have been charmed with what I have seen. Arthur Ransome was a literary rock star in his day. Mackenzie is not as well known as his contemporaries. His work for this book is beautiful and comparable to Edmund Dulac and Kay Nielsen.

Book description:

From the elegant typography and silhouetted endpapers to the twelve color plates and the addition of myriad decorative elements — ornamental heads, initials, silhouettes, partial borders, and much more — this hardcover edition is a unique presentation and a design triumph. Ransome's charming verse rendering, combined with Mackenzie's superb achievement, brings the tale of Aladdin to life in a new idiom.