A.O. Scott reviews a new “Sleeping Beauty” film made by Julia Leigh:

http://movies.nytimes.com/2011/12/02/movies/julia-leighs-sleeping-beauty-review.html

At a certain point Lucy wants to find out what happens while she is under the spell of Clara’s potion, and she buys a small video camera for the purpose. We already know, of course, but the gap between our perception and Lucy’s emphasizes the film’s deeper secret — or perhaps its most effective tease — which is what goes on in her mind.

In a video interview, Julia Leigh describes how the camera is more or less on the fourth wall of the cinematic space, allowing the viewer to see more than Lucy sees and making us complicit in what appears on screen.  I would add complicit with the filmmaker’s  fetishizing of the female body.

http://video.nytimes.com/video/2011/12/01/movies/100000001202452/julia-leigh-on-sleeping-beauty.html

Here’s a report from the screening at Cannes:

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/movies/2011/05/sleeping-beauty-movie-emily-browning-trailer.html

With its title, its dreamlike moments and a madam whose personality wouldn’t be out of place in a Grimm Brothers tale, Leigh’s movie also has a fairy-tale quality, continuing a theme that has transfixed Hollywood lately. For her part, Leigh was not shy about mentioning her influences, which she said include King Solomon (like the characters in the film, she said, he had young women keep him warm in his old age), Gandhi (he tested his chastity by doing same) and “the shady world of the Internet” and its escort services.

Thanks to my student Wendy Chang for calling my attention to the film.