After Grimm: Fairy Tales and the Art of Story Telling

This is a follow-up to a conference I posted about previously. Here's the most up-to-date info.

AFTER GRIMM: FAIRY TALES AND THE ART OF STORY TELLING
6th – 8th September 2012


Call for Papers

2012 is the bicentenary of the publication of the first volume of the Kinder- und Hausmärchen [Children’s and Household Tales] by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm. As this groundbreaking collection moves into its third century, this conference explores the trajectory of the Grimm phenomenon in Britain and the English-speaking world. Examining the varied and colourful reception history of this collection of tales, this conference will discuss the most recent fairy- tale scholarship, as well as looking forward to possible future developments. The Grimm bicentenary will also be celebrated through story-telling events, readings, a creative writing prize, and an exhibition of illustrations.

Confirmed Keynote Speakers: Professor Donald Haase, Neil Philip, and Professor Jack Zipes

Previously this conference was billed as two distinct events. Now Kingston University and The Sussex Centre for Folklore Fairy Tales and Fantasy at The University of Chichester are delighted to announce that they will be collaborating on a single event. Proposals for conference papers are invited on any aspect of fairy tale and storytelling over the last two-hundred years, but particularly in the following subjects:

The Oral Tradition within Grimms’ Tales a The literary origins of the Grimms’ ‘folktales’ a Translations of Grimms’ tales into English a The influence of Grimm upon British collectors of fairy tales a The impact of Grimms’ tales upon world literatures in English a Uses of Grimms’ tales in English-language visual media a Grimms’ tales and Romanticism a Grimms’ tales in Victorian Britain a Grimms’ tales in colonial and post-colonial contexts a Illustrations and art works relating to Grimms’ tales a Grimms’ tales in the electronic age a Memes, Tropes and Unchanging Elements a Telling Stories with Pictures a Songs as Stories a Reading Aloud a Performing Grimm a Packaging Grimm (illustrations, book covers, merchandising etc) a Fairy tales in (popular) culture a Retellings, Revisions and Reworkings a Adapting to New Audiences a New Fairy Tales a Fairy Tales on Stage and on Screen a Gossip, Slander, Rumour and News

This multi-disciplinary conference will welcome contributions from any disciplinary perspective including proposals to read creative work, screen films, mount performances and exhibit visual work.


Abstract submission

Please submit an abstract of approximately 300 words, and a brief contributor’s bio online at:
http://fass.kingston.ac.uk/activities/conferences/abstracts/

Deadline: January 31st 2012.
Enquiries:

Prof Bill Gray (Sussex Centre for Folklore Fairy Tales and Fantasy, University of Chichester) e: bgray@chi.ac.uk

Dr Andrew Teverson (Kingston University) e: fass-conferences@kingston.ac.uk

Beauty and the Beast Films Discussion by Rachel Ayers

   

Here we have Rachel's thoughts about several Beauty and the Beast films as part of Fairy Tale Film Month. You still have time to contribute, too! But for now, I'll turn the time over to Rachel:

Beauty and the Beast has long been one of my favorite fairy tale,
especially as I discovered the roots of the story in the Norwegian
East of the Sun, West of the Moon. (Both stories of young girls who
go to live with a Beast for the sake of their family's well-being; she
has a chance to break the spell, blows it, gets another chance, and
changes him back to human. Of course the second chance is a little
more complicated in East of the Sun, West of the Moon, but the essence
of the story is the same.) It's one of the fairy tales that feel like
it is about true love and friendship, rather than love at first sight.
I have come to appreciate those types of tales more and more as they
are few and far between.

Naturally, whenever a movie comes out with the premise of Beauty and
the Beast, I am interested (although I have certainly not seen all of
them). When Beastly came out earlier this year, I went to see it. I
think it got a raw deal in reviews. Okay, I admit, it's not the best
movie ever, but it does the story (and the book it's based on)
justice. I mean, it IS about a man-monster blackmailing another man
into sending his daughter along as a get-out-of-trouble-free card. And
although I wish they'd stuck more with the magic mirror than the
physical stalking--well, is one really any better than the other?

Beastly wasn't great, but it was enjoyable. Neil Patrick Harris
cracked me up every time he was on screen. And I do appreciate that
the filmmakers gave the characters time to develop their relationship
on screen: it seems like most young adult movies involve the
characters falling instantly in love and then fighting for the rest of
the film until they finally realize they fell in love back at the
beginning.

As with many of us, I am sure, my first introduction to Beauty and the
Beast was through Disney. Although I've come to appreciate more of
the problems of the Disney version (if a woman is pretty and sweet,
she can change a man from a violent beast into a kind and gentle
person), it's still one of my favorite Disney films. At least you
have a heroine who is bookish and smart, has some moxie and her own
interests for once. I still catch myself singing "Gaston" from time
to time.

(To be fair, Cinderella and Snow White were busy cleaning, and
Sleeping Beauty was busy... well... sleeping.)

I recently saw Jean Cocteau's version for the first time: what a
delight. Although it's perhaps the weirdest version I've ever seen,
with several elements that made me go "whaaaaat?" it is a truly
gorgeous film. Of course, many of those strange elements (like the
snarky family and the Beast's magical items) are part of the tale
popular among the French aristocracy in the 1700s. Still, the Beast's
smoking hands may have gotten a chuckle out of me....

Once upon a (recent) time, I was watching all the Faerie Tale Theatre
episodes again, for the first time since waaaay back. I was stunned
when I got to the Beauty and the Beast episode--it's a pared-down
version of Cocteau's film. The camera angles and special effects are
set up almost exactly the same (except I guess Faerie Tale Theatre's
budget didn't cover the floating-away sequence at the end). When I
realized that Faerie Tale Theatre pre-dated Disney's Beauty and the
Beast, it made sense--and made me realize that, despite all my
readings of earlier versions, and being a fairy tale snob... I still
thought of Beauty and the Beast in terms of the Disney version.

I admit, my favorite versions of the story have not seen the light of
the big screen--or even the home viewing screen. Still, I'll continue
to pay to see whatever versions Hollywood or TV networks put out, in
the hopes that they'll one day make a beautiful adaptation of my
favorite story--Juliet Marillier's Heart's Blood, perhaps?

Rachel Ayers
http://fairylayers.blogspot.com/
http://www.etsy.com/shop/richlayers
http://richlayers.livejournal.com

The Sleeping Beauty and Other Fairy Tales illustrated by Edmund Dulac

The Sleeping Beauty and Other Fairy Tales (Calla Editions) was released this week. This is part of the Calla Editions from Dover which are reprints of classic illustrated books. This book is a particular favorite of mine. The text is by Arthur Quiller-Couch. I like it enough to have included an edition on SurLaLune.  Edmund Dulac, the illustrator, is no stranger to readers of SurLaLune and one of my personal favorites. I especially like his interpretation of the French tales included here, Cinderella, Blue Beard, Beauty and the Beast, and Sleeping Beauty.

Of course, the point of owning a book like this is the beauty of the object from the illustrations to the book design. You can see some images of the interior through Amazon's Look Inside feature.

The edition contains four tales: "The Sleeping Beauty," "Blue Beard," "Cinderella," and "Beauty and the Beast" in artful retelling. However, the main feature of the book is the generous offering of 30 full-page color plates in Edmund Dulac's inimitable style. Additional design elements make this Calla edition a keepsake for readers and collectors alike.

A Cinderella Story: Once Upon a Song

 

A Cinderella Story: Once Upon a Song is a new release and the third in what can best be called the Cinderella Story franchise, I guess. This one is a musical and also has a soundtrack available. Here's the brief description of the movie:

Katie dreams of being a recording artist but is continually thwarted by her cruel stepmother and stepsister. When Katie falls hard for Luke, the new boy at her performing arts school, she tries to get his attention with her singing.

I have to admit I have only seen the first Cinderella Story and I have seen it more than a few times since it was a group favorite when I was teaching a group of 9-11 year-old-girls in a program similar to Girl Scouts about five years ago. Cinderella Story and Aquamarine and Ice Princess were the most requested for movie nights when I hosted the girls at my house for activities. And, no, the girls were not even aware of my fairy tale connections beyond some requests for some storytelling when carpooling. Of those three movies, I prefered Aquamarine the most although if I were to pick my favorite recent modernization of a fairy tale it would be Sydney White since I like Amanda Bynes better than most of these other starlets. Has anyone else seen Another Cinderella Story, the second movie in the franchise?

Facts behind the Cinderella story by Judith Ancer

The following article appeared last week and discusses parenting, step-parenting with some references to Cinderella. From Facts behind the Cinderella story by Judith Ancer:

Once upon a time there was a girl without a mother. Her father soon married someone else but "the wedding festivities were no sooner over than the stepmother began to show herself in her true colours".

This could be a complaint from any number of children I've seen in therapy, but is in fact a quote from an online version of the classic fairy tale, Cinderella.

It is useful to look at the "wicked step-parent" cliché from a psychological perspective. It starts with something psychologists call "splitting".

It is normal and inevitable that children will have ambivalent feelings towards their parents. The wonderful parent who loves, indulges, nurtures and protects you is the same person who gets really mad at you, says no to some of your deepest desires, doesn't understand you and even hurts you sometimes.

It takes psychological maturity to accept that the parent we love and depend on for our very life is the very person we can also fear and resent. Infants and very small children naturally defend against this by "splitting" and experiencing their parents as all good or all bad.

Folk tales and fairy stories make this split concrete - enter the good fairy godmother and her opposite number, the wicked stepmother.

Children, already vulnerable and defensive after a bereavement or a divorce, are primed to anticipate the worst from step-parents.

The article is much longer so click through to read the rest if you are interested.

Little Red Riding Hood & Film by Morbid March Hare

 

Morbid March Hare has shared with us her thoughts on Little Red Riding Hood and some of its film interpretations. You, too, can participate still. Read more about it at Fairy Tale Film Month.


And the rest is from her today:

My favourite fairy tale is Little Red Riding Hood in all its variations including the more dismal Perrault, the happier Grimm's version and the disturbing yet poignant Path of Needles or Pins, in which the heroine is helped by women and her own resourcefulness rather than needing a man to come save her. Over the years Red Riding Hood as developed from a tale of warning to young girls to beware wolves in all their guises, as Charles Perrault says 'Who does not know that these gentle wolves are of all such creatures the most dangerous!'

In the movie world there are several adaptations, two of which I am very familiar with- The Company of Wolves and the latest Red Riding Hood starring Amanda Seyfried. I love The Company of Wolves it is one of my favourite movies and it is simply put one of the greatest gothic movies out there and the best adaptation of Red Riding Hood in the film world, at least that I am aware of. Based on three short stories by Angela Carter- The Werewolf, The Company of Wolves, and Wolf-Alice- all collected together in The Bloody Chamber, it is a provocative, dark film full of symbolism and metaphors as it follows its heroine Rosaleen as she develops from child into young woman. In true fairytale fashion it is dreamlike, most of the movie in fact takes place inside a dream and is a combination of tales told by Rosaleen and her Grandmother that are weaved into the over-arching plot of Rosaleen's simple life in a village plagued by wolves of a varying nature.

I love this movie because it is no different from the norm, director Neil Jordan was obviously happy to take the risks of creating a film that was happy to be weird and explore subjects often seen as taboo and give meaning to them. This is not your standard predictable Hollywood movie with a straightforward, often dull plot, boring leads and a typical plot built around romance, it is something much rarer. It is horror and fantasy, a film full of moral lessons for girls growing up as well as lessons for those who are grown up and think they know it all when maybe it is possible that much like Rosaleen's bitter grandmother they are blind to the possibilities to this world and see only the darkness.

It follows the famous fairytale faithfully including a woodsman, a grandmother in the woods, the infamous red cloak and that all too memorable scene of Red Riding Hood meeting the wolf along the path and discovering that he has beat her to grandmother's house and that poor grandmother for all her wisdom has still met her end. Here the film changes, harping back to the earlier versions of the tale that lacked the huntsman whilst going off on its own tangent to empower Rosaleen and give us the heroine Little Red Riding Hood should have been. Better still it gives us a Red who is the heroine and wolf in one, a twist which I simply loved.

This movie is a divergent, under appreciated gem, the kind of movie sorely lacking in Hollywood were we are given something deeper and different, a thought provoking, colourful and entertaining film that is without peers. Perhaps its rarity makes it all the more charming but I would not mind seeing more of its kind. I love everything about it, its wonderful casting, its gothic atmosphere, its faithfulness to the fairytale above all else and its wonderful imagery as its mixes werewolves, wolves and men together, presenting them to us in six tales, two told by Grandmother, two by Rosaleen, the main tale of the film itself and the reality of Rosaleen's world as it is torn apart by a striking scene of wolves charging through her house.

This brings me to one of the movies I loathe- Red Riding Hood (2011)- directed by Catherine Hardwicke who, if this is anything to go by, will never lose her reputation as being the Twilight director. Bad enough that the posters had Twilight plastered over them and the trailer was deliberately edited to represent another Twilight styled movie but the movie itself was no different. Following the standard pattern of a love triangle mixed up in a supernatural world, it was predictable from the get go, you know Valerie is going to be with Peter and though I admit I did have fun trying to guess who the werewofl was it seems obvious now, it was only actor who came from Twilight, how tragic in a way.

This version of Little Red Riding Hood could have been a new bold horror but instead it decided to play it safe minimalising the sexual and gory scenes, which sometimes in a horror is a relief since many low budget horrors go to town with these scenes, but given this fairytale is ultimately viewed as a metaphor for a girl coming of age and discovering her sexual side, they could have dealt with it more. Instead Valerie's confusing romance issues are to put to one side for a whodunnit styled murder mystery as people in the village fall victim to a werewolf and the ridiculous Father Solomon is brought in to find the killer's identity before the werewolf curse is spread.

The special effects of the werewolf are woeful, the plot is very easy to lose interest in and there is sadly nothing original about it. The end has Valerie winding up a recluse like her grandmother with implied infrequent visits from her now werewolf lover Peter, an ending which could have been presented as bittersweet and sad but just seemed somewhat cheesy.

This film had a lot of potential but it was let down at every turn, Father Solomon is one of the worst onscreen villains I have ever seen, Valerie comes across as a boring, underdeveloped and somewhat idiotic lead and her love interests are equally dull and the acting from them is poor. If anything Henry's character actually seems the nicer of the two as he nothing but kind and considerate to Valerie and seems to truly have feelings for her whilst Peter is blunt and rude and when Valerie's mother tells him to stay away from Valerie rather than fight for her he obeys and tries to hurt her by dancing with her friend, for me I really couldn't understand why she thought Peter was the better catch.

I feel this film really lost sight of what Red Riding Hood is about, it cheapened Red's growing sexuality into a dull love triangle that could have been a way to actually show how Red's feelings grow as she does and how her urges develop but instead this triangle came about from her parents' interference rather than Red's own desires. Furthermore, the now common addition of the big bad wolf being a werewolf, was just an excuse to throw in some mystery that failed, there was no depth at all to the werewolf and the reasoning behind its murders were luducrious and the idea that he actually wants to pass on his curse is baffling.

Overall, The Company of Wolves grasps this loved fairytale a whole lot better than the mess that was Red Riding Hood, it offers the fairytale greater depth prompting the audience to give it some more thought and consideration, suggesting ideas about it one might not have considered before, whilst Red Riding Hood turns it into a ridiculous who dunnit styled film mixed in with a pointless love triangle that really isn't even the love triangle it was advertised as, as Valerie never really has feelings for Henry.

Morbid March Hare
Link: http://morbidmarchhare.blogspot.com/

Top 10 Beautiful Legs in Bollywood

Bollywood is no longer the home of those sari-clad women who were too modest show even a bit of skin and kept themselves running around trees and bushes. The current crop of actresses live with a dare-to-bare attitude and are seen running around in sunny beaches with the skimpiest of outfits. And since the outfits get tinier every time, it allows us to scan who has the best bod in the business. Here is our list of the Top 10 actresses who, we think, have the h0ttest pair of legs in Bollywood.

10. Kareena Kapoor

Though she was the proud owner of thunder thighs during the earlier part of her career, she must've realized that it wouldn't take her too far in her Bollywood journey. She soon shed all those pounds and transformed into the 'size-zero' queen of Bollywood that made every other actress see green. Today, her legs are so in shape that she could give some of the top models a good run for their money. Take a look at how she keeps herself in shape with Kareena Kapoor's Size Zero Secrets. 09 more after the break...

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