Never After: a few thoughts
Sunday I saw Never After. It's cute and bouncy. Much of the music is fun; the orchestra was excellent. It pushed at my definition of 'fairy tale' -- I think it isn't quite one, to me, but instead belongs over in whatever one calls the space Gilbert and Sullivan operettas are in
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The first thing Les does as a bandit after the training montage in which she has nominally learned all sorts of combat skills is pretend to be a damsel in distress to bait an unwary traveler.
This is very compressed from the movie script. In that, she fumbles a lot, but ends up taking advantage of the confusion of the aristocrat by making off with two horses. I had not considered how it would come across, to have her playing damsel-in-distress; I was thinking of it as an extension of her glee at deceiving Camembert with her "feminine wiles" - utilizing instead of being entrapped by sexism. I'd like to think it's more balanced and nuanced in the full version (which, by the way, you're welcome to read at http://www.lightsuit.org/Never After2.pdf).
After two scenes in which Les ( ... )
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I wasn't fond of her using "feminine wiles" against Camembert, either, but that at least felt desperate, clumsy, and forced by circumstances rather than planned. That sort of manipulation is a learned skill, but she's presented as having spent her childhood dodging lessons in traditional feminine skills (be those embroidery or seduction) in favor of climbing trees and playing at swordsmanship with Hans. That she has those skills or is willing to use them to me undercuts her character as a tomboy and forwards the notion that manipulation of that sort is inherent in being female rather than learned skill used by the sex with less overt power.
Also, she just acquired the combat training she's been wanting her whole life. Why is she not itching to put that to use?
I'd like to think it's more balanced ( ... )
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I had intended it as a hero's journey: Les goes out, has adventures that mature her, and returns home with new skills and knowledge. I was trying for "nascent democracy", where the peasants decide for themselves that they want Les to continue to lead and guide them. She has done so thus far, giving her time and money to their betterment and fighting on their behalf, completely unlike the royals whom she has renounced.She does return home with new skills and knowledge, but none that particularly qualify her to rule anything, nor does she seem suited by temperment to rule -- too much sitting still talking, not enough adventuring. (As is mentioned above, how she and Somnia are going to arrange a life that works for both of them is an interesting problem ( ... )
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The intended message was that Les had matured beyond "rejecting men and a constraining life" into "embracing love and responsibility". I'll aim towards more of "sovereign at a stroke/content to share what's now the lot of common folk." Shared responsibility, each knowing and valuing their own gifts.
[scribble scribble scribble]
Thanks for the commentary. It's apparent to me now that I was doing some lazy thinking, mostly about how to spoof and subvert fairytale tropes, without letting some of the character tropes become more of the real people they can be.
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