Blancanieves Blu-ray

Blancanieves deftly blends cinematic antiquarianism, period atmosphere and primal emotions. Set in Spain in the 1920s, it replaces the spooky northern European romanticism of the Brothers Grimm with a swooning, tragic sensibility native to (or perhaps stereotypically associated with) the Iberian Peninsula. The Snow White character, named Carmen, is the daughter of a bullfighter (Daniel Giménez Cacho) and a flamenco dancer (Inma Cuesta), and her story hums with jealousy, vanity and other volatile passions. Many of these pulsate in the heart of Carmen’s stepmother, Encarna (Maribel Verdú, seen in ‘Pan’s Labyrinth’ and ‘Y Tu Mamá También’), a delectably wicked villain who is transformed before our eyes from a lovestruck nurse to a perverse and murderous gold digger, as cruel to her husband as she is to his daughter. Encarna marries the girl’s father after he is paralyzed by a bull named Lucifer. (His wife has died in childbirth after witnessing the injury.) Carmen, played as a wide-eyed, soft-featured child by Sofia Oria, is comforted by the companionship of her father, her grandmother (Ángela Molina) and a mischievous rooster named Pepe, this film’s answer to the scrappy terrier that was everyone’s favorite part of ‘The Artist.’ There are dwarfs too, who befriend Carmen after she has grown into a lovely and spirited young woman (played by Macarena García).