La belle endormie

When Catherine Breillat makes a film of a fairy tale, one can be sure no children's movie will come of it. Following BLUE BEARD (2009), she has taken on another folk tale that owes its popularity to Charles Perrault: »La belle au bois dormant,« known in the English-speaking world as SLEEPING BEAUTY. As was the case with BLUE BEARD before, the French filmmaker and author again renders a rather liberal interpretation of this classic tale from a decidedly female perspective. Like much of her previous work, her new film is another exploration of female wishes and carnal desires that proceeds without reserve – which has been cause for scandal, time and again, from her long-banned debut feature, A REAL YOUNG GIRL (1976), to FAT GIRL/FOR MY SISTER (2001). »Life is not a fairy tale,« Breillat writes about SLEEPING BEAUTY. »Love in early adolescence, like premature motherhood, brings one back to a different reality of life. It 'puts the feet back on the ground,' as the saying goes. The story is therefore not a fairy tale, but the account of the beginning of a life.« SLEEPING BEAUTY was the opening film of the Orizzonti section in this year's Venice Film Festival.