Did anyone think that the success of "The Artist" would prompt other European directors to make black and white silent pictures? If not, think again for here we have "Blancanieves", an elegant re-telling of "Snow White" set in the bull-fighting milieu of Seville circa the 1920's and done, yes, as a silent picture.
It is, of course, ravishingly pretty, (Kiko De La Rica's black and white images are often breathtaking), and it's very well played, particularly by Maribel Verdu as the evil stepmother and by the great Angela Molina as the grandmother, but it's also something of a pointless novelty that could just as effectively been done in colour and with sound. I certainly enjoyed it, (the director, Pablo Berger, does enough variants on the Snow White story to make it interesting), but I hope that this is the end of this kind of experimentation. I don't want to see "Avatar" every time I go to the cinema but neither do I want endless variations of "Sunrise" either.
It is, of course, ravishingly pretty, (Kiko De La Rica's black and white images are often breathtaking), and it's very well played, particularly by Maribel Verdu as the evil stepmother and by the great Angela Molina as the grandmother, but it's also something of a pointless novelty that could just as effectively been done in colour and with sound. I certainly enjoyed it, (the director, Pablo Berger, does enough variants on the Snow White story to make it interesting), but I hope that this is the end of this kind of experimentation. I don't want to see "Avatar" every time I go to the cinema but neither do I want endless variations of "Sunrise" either.