Saturday, September 21, 2013
The frogs are not the snails you may think
MATT DAMON – HEATH LEDGER – THE BROTHERS GRIMM – 2005
A very funny film which is
nothing but a patchwork of Grimm characters and Grimm fairy tales, all mixed up
and all crisscrossed together with some unavoidable details or situations,
though there is no kissing of frogs, yet a little bit of licking a toad, and of
course the kissing of a princess who is a witch and yet a princess and finally
the kissing of a Grimm brother by the witch princess, or is it Veronica, and
all that works.
Nature is totally crazy with
walking trees, burning forests and magic towers in the middle of a bewitched
country. The Grimm Brothers are nothing but perambulating crooks that make
believe they can kill or capture witches and other wizards and free villages of
all the bad demons they can imagine. There are so many suckers in this world
that the Grimm brothers or their modern equivalents can make a fortune and at
the same time have great fun. Walt Disney or Miramax are the least offensive
ones among those.
But nothing is simple in Germany in 1811
under the occupation of Napoleon’s troops. The frogs are no longer the jumping neobatrachias
we enjoy in ponds and other lakes, but these strange human beings wearing
tricolor feathers on their heads and advocating the non existence of fairies,
witches and other supernatural beings inhabiting the minds of superstitious
simple minded people. They are not afraid of what does not exist though they
are ready to fight a real battle against that haunted forest.
The Frenchies have also brought
with them snails and they use them to torture good Germans who cannot stand snails
of course, whereas Frenchies are eating them, generally cooked in some tomato
stew. There are all kinds of tastes in this world but Frenchies sure have the
most surprising – and disgusting – ones.
Entertaining and never really humdrum
because of the innumerable distortions performed on the tales we know they
introduce at every single moment of the story. And they destroy the witch who
believes she is the most beautiful girl in the world since her mirror is
telling her so with the typical action dictated by the simple logic of a child:
break her mirror and she will be shattered into smithereens.
And then they can be happy
finally like good boys and good girls and we will not speak of the children
they will make because after all we are working for a family audience and in a
world where marriage is for everyone and not only for those who can collect little
babies in lilies or whatever other flower or accept babies delivered to them by
some storks. Let the others adopt some orphans.
Dr Jacques COULARDEAU
# posted by Dr. Jacques COULARDEAU @ 1:47 PM 
