I HAD A FROZEN COKE AND I LOVE HOW LOUD EVERYTHING IN MY HEAD IS NOW

[cleolinda]

Okay, I just saw Maleficent and I kind of loved it so if you would like to discuss it here, go for it, but I have to warn you, I'm also finishing Penny Dreadful tonight, and my thoughts are already so scattered that I'm considering doing voice posts just because I let text entries sit here for weeks at a time and constantly re-edit them to keep

Comments

[cleolinda]

What I thought was really interesting was how they seemed to frame cutting off her wings as a rape or assault, but it was so much more about taking away her power and agency than, say, purity. It was a sexual metaphor (he literally gave her a roofie) yet not sexual at all, in the way that rape isn't really about sex either, but power. And then the story turns into this exploration of how hatred and vengeance can eat you up so bad that you might lash out at everything around you, everything you loved, and you start nurturing the thing you want to destroy just so you can have the pleasure of destroying it. It was really funny when Maleficent was like, oh my God do I also have to RAISE the kid so she'll even BE THERE for the curse, but you stop and think about it, and... wow. And in the end, it was a motherly/sisterly (in the sense of a greater sisterhood) love that brought her back to herself, but also learning to love someone she saw as being like the self she lost (specifically referenced in the second mud fight), and that daughter/self gave her the wings back, and she recovered her power. Somehow it transcended the "abused heroine" trope, for me, with the way that played out. You can view it as Maleficent developing a mother's true love for Aurora, but also a true love for a symbolic version of herself, kind of reawakening that younger, joyous, hopeful, "happy all the days of your life" self and reaffirming that it can still live.

[icprncs]

Yes. I am so much in agreement with all of this.

(I *sobbed* at several points in the movie, pure cathartic "I recognize this feeling" sobbing. I can make a lot of criticisms of it as movie, as structure, but I'm not sure I've seen anything that more purely captures what it's like to experience and recover from trauma, especially as a woman.)

And a small, kind-of-frivolous but kind-of-not comment: every time Stephan opened his mouth I thought, "Couldn't they get David Tennant?"

[cleolinda]

That scene where Maleficent wakes up and starts screaming--keening--is going to haunt my dreams. That was just somehow incredibly real in the middle of this kids' fantasy movie.

[koramay]

What I really liked about the cutting of the wings as a metaphor for rape is that you could see it as alluding to the Basile version of Sleeping Beauty: Sun, Moon and Talia. Maleficent gets put into the position of Talia/Sleeping Beauty who was raped by the king while in an induced sleep, but she's also the king's wife/first love who takes revenge on the king's new lover and children. So they take this story about a woman who's been wronged by a man (whether because of infidelity or because he didn't invite her to the christening) but takes revenge not on him but on his daughter, and have her come to love the daughter and have her own happy ending.

Basically I really loved Maleficent as a retelling of the Sleeping Beauty fairy tale, not just the Disney movie.

Plus, it's clear she made the True Love's Kiss condition as a reference to Stefan kissing her, but I think she made the curse 'eternal sleep' to refer to him drugging her. I wish they could have come up with a reason for the spinning wheel beyond 'she just happened to see one' but you can't have everything.