Gretel & Hansel
She speaks out of turn and she has opinions; it would be unseemly in a woman of lower class, but to hear it from a teenage girl is intolerable. Had she been submissive, Gretel might have been given the job but instead she was defiant and as a result she and her brother Hans have been thrown out by their widowed mother who says she cannot support them.
With nothing but the clothes on their back they walk the forest, a realm beautiful by day yet terrifying through the dark night, Gretel wary of those she meets, especially those who seem to show kindness such as the hunter who warns them not to talk to wolves: “They are charming but make terrible conversation.”
Cold and hungry, they find a house whose glowing windows speak of warmth and Hans squeezes inside and finds tables laden with food, meat, bread, cakes and fruit; welcomed in by the old woman who lives there, she insists they stay, but while Hans is delighted Gretel is concerned what the unspoken price of such generosity might be.
The inspiration for Gretel & Hansel dating back two centuries to the works of Wilhelm and Jacob Grimm, collectors and adaptors of European folk tales, this interpretation from director Osgood Perkins and screenwriter Rob Hayes shifts the focus, excising the father and the wicked stepmother entirely and making Gretel the elder sibling and narrator.
While Hans is a child, impulsive when he smells cake, the relationship between the abandoned girl and her elderly benefactor is the core of the film, It’s Sophia Lillis self-possessed as Gretel while Sleepwalkers’ Alice Krige is quietly attentive and menacing; that she wants something is clear, but if she means them harm then why does she wish Gretel to learn the lore of the forest?
The strength of fairy tales is that they transcend generations, presenting archetypes and primal fears, rejection and abandonment, responsibility for a child, a stranger who may betray, and Gretel & Hansel is languid yet compelling, the ominously lit cottage a twisted thorn branch amongst the lush vegetation, the costumes and angular architecture at odds with the period but with the discontinuity amplifying the oddness rather than breaking the illusion.
Gretel & Hansel is available on DVD now
