Blancanieves

Blancanieves is a silent, black and white film, directed by Pablo Berger in 2012. It is a spanish film although since the only words in the film are ones you have to read anyway, it was very simple to watch. The film starts off strong, only a few minutes into the film we are thrust into an action sequence with a man "fighting" a bull. When he seems to be winning and doing well, the bull gets the better of him and sends him to the hospital, and coincidentally, his wife is sent to the same hospital, going into labor. The wife dies, the matador gets paralyzed and decides to marry a horrible "witch". Eventually the matadors' little girl comes home to him, only to be basically tortured by the witch her father married.

When the little girl, Carmencita, finds her father, they instantly connect. They have some good times together, laughing and playing, until the witch finds out. She murders Carmencitas father and eventually sets out to have her murdered, but the man she sent to murder the girl, or woman I guess, fails when she is revived by a dwarf. This dwarf, we learn, is part of a dwarf bull fighting group that travels around and gives people a comedic show of dwarves fighting bulls. When Carmancita, now named Snow White, senses one of the group is in danger, she goes out to save him and the crowd goes wild as she outsmarts the bull. She becomes famous and word of her reaches the witch that tried to have her killed. She kills the man who failed to murder Snow White and sets out to do it on her own. When the bull she switched out with the calf fails to hurt Snow White, the witch gives her a poisoned apple, and when Snow White finally eats it, she dies. The witch is killed by the bull she put in place of the calf, and Snow White becomes a money maker for the circus, but when one of the dwarves kisses her in her coffin, a single tear falls from her eye.

This film was fantastic. It was refreshing to find a black and white silent film that wasn't a comedy and was actually bearable. I loved how it seemed to have been shot back in the 20's, but the camera shots were so modern and beautiful. The acting was flawless, the woman who played Snow White played it very well. Not only did she do a great job with the acting, but she did a great job doing the bullfighting. She really did look like a bull fighter, and you don't see that much from women. Other than the acting and the awesome cinematography, the music was wonderful as well. It was common silent film music, but with an added flair, something I can't really explain, but it was perfect.