White as Snow – Fairly Un-Sexy Pornography

White as Snow has such an erratic, muddled opening that most viewers will immediately wonder whether they accidentally jumped into the film at the 45 minute mark. Once it settles down a bit, viewers will surely start to think that this might have just been a cold open and fifteen minutes in, the film will go back and do all of the things that films usually do. Character development, slow building tension and clear establishment of conflict falls by the wayside, as characters are awkward introduced in the space of a few seconds. It quickly becomes obvious that the screenwriters intended for this to serve as a send up of tropes found in classical fairy tales. It attempts to serve as a feminist re-interpretation of Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty, but it is so clumsily put together that it is hard not to scoff at its high ideals.

White as Snow positions two archetypical characters against one another, but forgets to offer one of them a real backstory. Claire (de Laâge) is the Snow White figure. She’s a beautiful virgin who attracts the attention of every man who comes in contact with her, angering other women in the process. Maud (Huppert) is her evil stepmother, a woman so vile that she can’t handle being upstaged by an oblivious young girl. Maud attempts to have Claire murdered but Claire makes an unexpected escape and ends up hiding out in a small town. She is unaware of the fact that Claire wanted her dead, and finds herself taking refuge in the arms of several men. Every man in town seems to have feelings for her, and this ends up causing all sorts of problems for her. 

One would naturally assume that successfully updating a fairy tale for modern times would take a considerable amount of subtlety. The blunt rhetoric and moralizing found in stories told to little girls, can come across as ludicrous when transported into a modern, supposedly believable environment, in which fairy godmothers and magical spells don’t exist. There is always an underlying threat in fairy tales, which relates to an issue that we face in the real world, but the message tends to be buried within a story full of blushing housemaids and luxurious ball gowns. Snow White wants to provide a radical, modern take on some old fashioned stories by introducing feminism into the mix. It is fair to say that the ideal woman no longer needs to be a flawless, long suffering virgin who longs to get married to somebody in a higher social class than her. The classist implications of Cinderella have always been open to a lot of debate and you keep waiting for White as Snow to say something about the class structure that pushes women to act like gold diggers. Rather than turning to discussion points that could yield real critical analysis, the film essentially turns into a pornographic film. 

Its screenwriters seemingly decided that Snow White and Cinderella really needed to resemble Emmanuelle, in order to be taken seriously as art for grown-ups. The mid-section of the film gets bogged down in scenes in which a variety of men instantly fall in lust with Claire, pursue her and then end up having the type of violent, coercive sex that seems to be a prerequisite in all trashy French erotica. Every scene is faintly ludicrous but director Anne Fontaine doesn’t seem to be aware of this fact. This has been a running theme in her career, as she has brought a tone of irritating, high toned self importance to films about middle aged women having affairs with the sons of their best friends. She works with plots that should serve as a jumping off point to create good trash that is aware of how unbelievable and ridiculous it is. In her hands, these plots are treated as though they are the stuff of a Stefan Zweig masterwork. She drums all of the fun out of something that should have you joyfully smirking as respectable actors behave badly and chew up the scenery. Fontaine gives viewers un-erotic porn that steadfastly refuses to become campy. 

Fontaine’s approach to this material is also severely flawed because she shoots the sex scenes in a way that prizes the reactions of Claire’s lovers, over her own feelings about the lovemaking sessions that she goes through. The script is quite clear about the fact that this is meant to be a feminist parable about the way that sexually liberated young women face cruel, unfair judgment at the hands of a patriarchal society. In trying to express this idea, you would think that Fontaine would consider the ecstasy that Claire presumably experiences when she has sex. If one is going to create a sex-positive film, it probably helps to actually depict a person enjoying themselves when they get it on. We get shockingly little focus on Claire’s activity while having sex, and we are asked to just accept the fact that she likes it. This ensures that the film’s emotional through line doesn’t have as much impact, as viewers can’t see why sex and the freedom that comes with being able to copulate with anybody, plays such an important role in a young woman’s life. 

In the end, White as Snow doesn’t succeed in doing what it sets out to do, and when it reaches its confusing, slapdash ending, it might just leave viewers in a daze. Fontaine is so willing to batter with a series of bonkers plot twists, that it becomes hard to take anything in with a straight face. Huppert fans will be disappointed by the fact that she gets so little to do here and general moviegoers might run screaming for the exits. It is rare that an unintentionally hilarious disaster is inflicted upon general moviegoers in this day and age. 

still courtesy of Cohen Media Group

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Zita Short

I am passionate about screwball comedies from the 1930s and certain actresses from the Golden Age of Hollywood. I’ll aim to review new Netflix releases and write features, so expect a lot of romantic comedies and cult favourites.