Butler's Cinema Scene

Macarena Garcia

“BLANCANIEVES” My rating: B (Opens May 31 at the Tivoli)

104 minutes | MPAA rating: PG-13

“Blancanieves” is Spanish for “Snow White.” And, yes, Spanish director Pablo Berger’s film is yet another telling of that classic tale from the Brothers Grimm.

But Berger has plenty of tricks up his sleeve. For one thing, he updates the story to Spain in the 1920s. For another, he shoots it in pristine black and white.

And most daringly, he makes it a silent movie. Even more silent than “The Artist,” for here there are no sound effects and not even a snippet of spoken dialogue.  Just music.

The Dwarfs

The results are frequently visually ravishing but, to my tastes, a bit undercooked dramatically. Unlike “The Artist,” “Blancanieves” doesn’t play with silent movie conventions. It embraces them totally and the results are sometimes less fun than, well, academic.

Poor little Carmen (played as a child by Sofia Oria) is the daughter of a famous matador crippled in the ring (Daniel Gimenez Cacho) and a mother who died during childbirth.

Her paralyzed father has married his nurse, Encarna (Maribel Verdu, the beautiful star of “Y Tu Mama Tambien” and “Pan’s Labyrinth”), who treats him like dirt, has sado-masochistic sex with the chauffeur and gleefully revels in her newfound wealth.  As for little Carmen, she’s reduced to sleeping in a dank basement, slaving at household chores, and visiting her papa when the evil stepmother isn’t looking.

It’s during these father-daughter sessions that the former matador begins coaching his little girl in the art of bullfighting. It becomes their little secret.

Maribel Verdu

Alas, Papa dies and Incarna orders her chauffeur/lover to murder the now-grown Carmen (Macarena Garcia). He leaves her for dead in the woods, but she’s rescued by a travelling troupe of dwarf bullfighters. She has amnesia, but hasn’t forgotten what she learned at her father’s side, and before long this Snow White and her band of sawed-off picadors are the sensation of the bullfighting world.

The evil Incarna realizes that Carmen remains a threat and plots to kill her. A poisoned apple should do the trick.

“Blancanieves” features a wonderful musical score by Alfonso de Vilallonga that mixes both orchestral and flamenco touches and gorgeous cinematography by Kiko de la Rica.

But it feels too studied, too self-aware to really grab us emotionally.

| Robert W. Butler