Blancanieves

Blancanieves (known as Blancaneu in Catalan) is a 2012 Spanish black-and-white silent drama film written and directed by Pablo Berger. Based on the 1812 fairy tale Snow White by the Brothers Grimm, the story is set in a romantic vision of 1920s Andalusia.[4] Berger calls it a "love letter to European silent cinema."[5]

Blancanieves
Theatrical release poster
Directed byPablo Berger
Produced byIbon Cormenzana
Jérôme Vidal
Pablo Berger
Screenplay byPablo Berger
Based onSnow White
by Jacob Grimm
Wilhelm Grimm
StarringMacarena García
Maribel Verdú
Music byAlfonso de Vilallonga
CinematographyKiko de la Rica
Edited byFernando Franco
Distributed byWanda (Spain)
Release date
  • 8 September 2012 (2012-09-08) (TIFF[1])
  • 28 September 2012 (2012-09-28) (Spain)
Running time
105 minutes[2]
CountrySpain
France
LanguageNo dialogue (Intertitles and songs in Spanish)
Box office$240,310 (US)[3]

Blancanieves was Spain's 85th Academy Awards official submission to Best Foreign Language category, but it did not make the shortlist.[6] The film won the Special Jury Prize and an ex-aequo Best Actress "Silver Shell" Award for Macarena García at the 2012 San Sebastián International Film Festival.[7] It was also nominated in every category for which it was eligible at the 27th Goya Awards (except for Best Sound), winning ten Goya Awards, including the Best Film.

Cast

Production

The inspiration for the film began when writer-director Pablo Berger saw a photograph of bullfighting dwarves in España Oculta (1989, ISBN 8477820686),[5] by Cristina García Rodero. By 2003, Berger had written Blancanieves and was working to raise funds for it soon after his film Torremolinos 73 was appearing at festivals; eight years later, in May 2011, he was working on the storyboards for Blancanieves and about to begin principal photography when news reached him that The Artist had been shown at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival:[5]

"Nobody knew about The Artist until it appeared in Cannes. It was completely out of the blue. I was in my office in Madrid, doing the storyboards for my film, when a producer friend sent me a text message from the festival saying, 'I've just seen The Artist, it's black and white and silent and it's going to be huge.' I almost threw my phone against the wall. The high concept was gone."

According to Berger, Blancanieves is a "love letter to European silent cinema, ... especially French. Abel Gance for me is God. Movies like Napoleon, J'Accuse!, La Roue are extraordinary."[5]

Reception

On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, Blancanieves holds an approval rating of 94%, based on 106 reviews, and an average rating of 7.8/10. Its consensus reads: "Smartly written and beautiful to behold, Blancanieves uses its classic source material to offer a dark tale, delightfully told."[8] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 82 out of 100, based on 21 critics, indicating "Universal acclaim".[9]

The Guardian's Peter Bradshaw called it "extraordinarily enjoyable", awarding it five stars out of five and saying Pablo Berger "finds new life and heart in the old myth – certainly more than the recent Hollywood retreads – and daringly locates possibilities for both evil and romance in the ranks of the dwarves themselves"; the director "takes inspiration from Hitchcock, with hints of Rebecca and Psycho, Buñuel, Browning and Almodóvar, and conjures a fascinatingly ambiguous ending: melancholy, eerie and erotic. A film to treasure."[10]

Chicago Sun-Times film critic Roger Ebert gave the film four out of four stars, writing that the film "Is a full-bodied silent film of the sort that might have been made by the greatest directors of the 1920s, if such details as the kinky sadomasochism of this film's evil stepmother could have been slipped past the censors."[11] Later, he chose it to be shown at the 2013 Roger Ebert's Overlooked Film Festival.

Accolades

List of awards and nominations
Award Category Nominee Result
European Film Awards[12][13] Best Film Nominated
Best Director Pablo Berger Nominated
Best Costume Designer Paco Delgado Won
5th Gaudí Awards Best Film in Catalan Language Won
Best Director Pablo Berger Nominated
Best Screenplay Pablo Berger Nominated
Best Female Lead Ángela Molina Nominated
Maribel Verdú Nominated
Best Cinematography Kiko de la Rica Nominated
Best Art Direction Alain Bainée Won
Best Costume Design Paco Delgado Won
Best Film Editing Fernando Franco Nominated
Best Make-Up and Hairstyles Fermín Galán and Sylvie Imbert Nominated
Best Original Score Alfonso de Villalonga Won
Best Special/Visual Effects Reyes Abades and Ferrán Piquer Nominated
27th Goya Awards Best Film Won
Best Director Pablo Berger Nominated
Best Actor Daniel Giménez Cacho Nominated
Best Actress Maribel Verdú Won
Best Supporting Actor Josep Maria Pou Nominated
Best Supporting Actress Ángela Molina Nominated
Best New Actor Emilio Gavira Nominated
Best New Actress Macarena García Won
Best Original Screenplay Pablo Berger Won
Best Cinematography Kiko de la Rica Won
Best Editing Fernando Franco Nominated
Best Art Direction Alain Bainée Won
Best Production Supervision Josep Amorós Nominated
Best Special Effects Reyes Abades and Ferrán Piquer Nominated
Best Costume Design Paco Delgado Won
Best Makeup and Hairstyles Sylvie Imbert and Fermín Galán Won
Best Original Score Alfonso de Villalonga Won
Best Original Song No Te Puedo Encontrar by Pablo Berger and Juan Gómez "Chicuelo" Won
Latin ACE Awards Best Film Won
Best Actress Maribel Verdú Won
Best Supporting Actor Daniel Giménez Cacho Won
26th Chicago Film Critics Association Awards Best Original Score Alfonso de Villalonga Nominated
14th Vancouver Film Critics Circle Awards Best Foreign Language Film Nominated
39th César Awards Best Foreign Film Nominated

See also

References
  1. Sanchez, Diana. "Festival – Discovery: Blancanieves". TIFF. Archived from the original on 26 August 2012. Retrieved 18 July 2013.
  2. "BLANCANIEVES (12A)". British Board of Film Classification. 5 June 2013. Archived from the original on 10 November 2013. Retrieved 12 June 2013.
  3. "Blancanieves (2012)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 22 May 2013.
  4. Bonet Mojica, Lluís (28 September 2012). "'Blancanieves': Una 'Blancanieves' torera". La Vanguardia. Retrieved 28 September 2012.
  5. Matheou, Demetrios (11 July 2013). "Pablo Berger: 'A movie's like a paella, you put all of your obsessions in there'". The Guardian. Retrieved 18 July 2013.
  6. Hopewell, John (27 September 2012). "Spain sets 'Blancanieves' for Oscar race". Variety. Reed Business Information. Retrieved 27 September 2012.
  7. "Official Selection Awards". San Sebastián International Film Festival. 29 September 2012. Archived from the original on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 29 September 2012.
  8. "Blancanieves (2013) - Rotten Tomatoes". Rotten Tomatoes.com. Flixter. Retrieved 24 November 2018.
  9. "Blancanieves reviews". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved 24 November 2018.
  10. Bradshaw, Peter (11 July 2013). "Blancanieves – review". The Guardian. Retrieved 18 July 2013.
  11. Ebert, Roger (11 July 2013). "Blancanieves". Chicago Sun-Times. Retrieved 11 August 2013.
  12. "Winners 2013". European Film Awards. European Film Academy. Retrieved 9 December 2013.
  13. "Nominations 2013". European Film Awards. European Film Academy. Retrieved 12 December 2013.
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