This is excellent and illuminating, but it should be noted how directly much of the middle section is drawn from Hans Andersen's The Snow Queen -- an astonishing work in its own right.
There is indeed quite a lot of Snow Queen story in there, isn't there! Interestingly, the descriptions I read give the impression that the boy is simply taken captive by an evil spirit, whereas Breillat regards his transformation as the onset of puberty, and seems to accept his new cruelty as part of his transition to adulthood.
The "onset of puberty" theme is quite explicit in the Andersen story -- there, too, the characters begin as children and end as adults. As originally written it already seems very close to Breillat's interests!
This is excellent and illuminating, but it should be noted how directly much of the middle section is drawn from Hans Andersen's The Snow Queen -- an astonishing work in its own right.
ReplyDeleteThere is indeed quite a lot of Snow Queen story in there, isn't there! Interestingly, the descriptions I read give the impression that the boy is simply taken captive by an evil spirit, whereas Breillat regards his transformation as the onset of puberty, and seems to accept his new cruelty as part of his transition to adulthood.
ReplyDeleteThe "onset of puberty" theme is quite explicit in the Andersen story -- there, too, the characters begin as children and end as adults. As originally written it already seems very close to Breillat's interests!
ReplyDelete