The fog from a smoke machine rolls across the stage as the black veiled queen dies giving birth to Snow White. The spare monolithic backdrop of the palace walls become lit and we see the widowed king raising his daughter to become a blooming beauty, desired and admired by all within the castle’s court.
Multiple tracking and hand-held cameras unashamedly capture the beautiful bodies and movements of the multi-ethnic dancers from shifting perspectives. The audible squeaks and stomping of the dancers’ feet on the floor, the visible training bruises on Snow White’s muscular thighs, reinforce the notion that we are watching dancers in realtime.
An erotic garden of delights scene, full of entangled lovers, has Snow White floating her red menstrual scarf, cavorting with her prince. The Evil Stepmother is outraged and makes her spectacular entrance in all black fetish haute couture, along with a pair of catsuited servants. With spiderlike movements, she sexily sheds her clothes to become the Old Crone, violently administering the poison apple to Snow White. The Seven Dwarfs, using the modern dance tools of harnesses, rappel down the rocky face of the mine to discover the poisoned beauty. The prince comes to the rescue and the story ends in a glittery wedding topped by the Evil Stepmother’s fiery dance of punishment.
A naughty and sensual Snow White is good, but the hot Evil Stepmother is even better.
Willis Wong
Intermedias reviewer at VIFF 2010
Snow White
Directed by Angelin Preljocaj
France 2009