The Sleeping Beauty

As with 2009's Bluebeard, French auteur Catherine Breillat once again puts her indelible stamp on another classic fairy tale, which begins with the birth of princess Anastasia—entering the world under the curse of the evil Carabosse (Rosine Favey), who declares that at age 16, Anastasia will pierce her hand on a spindle and die. But the child's three fairy godmothers hear of the scheme and change the plan so that she'll sleep for 100 years instead. Young Anastasia (Carla Besnaïnou) becomes a tomboy who'd prefer to live as a prince (at one point she sighs, “A little girl's life is really boring”), and she runs off to the country, where a widow and son welcome her into their household. After an encounter with the Snow Queen (Romane Portail), Anastasia's surrogate brother Peter (Kérian Mayan) disappears, leading her on a search. En route she encounters a diminutive station manager, an albino prince and princess, and a Roma girl who suggests she travel to Lapland to seek out a mystic who may be able to break the looming spell. After that, the account skips ahead a century as 16-year-old Anastasia (Julia Artamonov) reconnects with the gypsy and attracts a suitor (David Chausse). While Breillat's adherence to dream logic makes it hard to predict what will happen here, she doesn't seem to be saying anything especially profound through her post-modern tweaks to this well-worn story. Still, given Breillat's notoriety as a controversial director, this should be considered a strong optional purchase. (K. Fennessy)