In "The Sleeping Beauty," Catherine Breillat's wily and witty retelling of the fairy tale, the enchanted princess doesn't just fall into a 100-year slumber. She also hits the road, walking and riding into adventure.
After taking up Bluebeard in her previous movie, Breillat has turned to a more familiar tale, transforming a story of the universal woman into that of a specific girl, Anastasia (played first by Carla Bes nainou and then by Julia Artamonov) and the world she makes from her imaginative longing.
As she did in "Bluebeard" Breillat puts a child at the center of "The Sleeping Beauty," almost as if she wanted to get her hands on the girl (who can be seen as a stand-in for all girls) before the fairy tale has its way with her.
The road that Anastasia journeys is her own, though it's truly Breillat's and thus filled with amusements, digressions and discussions about life and femininity. "I hated girls," Anastasia says at one point, casting her scorn on some wee ballerinas. Happily, there are dancing and singing bandits to amuse her (and us), a few flashes of the knife and a snow queen who wavers in a darkened window as if through a dark pond.
"The Sleeping Beauty" is driven by concepts rather than sumptuous illusionism. Its costumes, settings and artful boils are more convincing than those in "Bluebeard," which had a cheap look. And "The Sleeping Beauty" is more thoughtfully imagined and art-directed, though it's too bad it wasn't shot on film. Its digital images can look thin and don't have the density and near-tactile quality that Breillat seems at times to seek.
Given her explorations of female desire and masochism, as well as the fantasies and fallacies of heterosexual romantic love, it's fitting that Breillat should be revisiting fairy tales. The pleasures of her work are its commitment and seriousness, and its raw, sometimes very funny perversity: She lets everything hang out, without apologies.
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