Review of Sleeping Beauty (2011) by Nicholasbert — 30 Oct 2014

No wonder it was Cannes to praise this film. Although Sleeping Beauty is an Australian production, this type of cold eroticism is usually exclusive to French cinema and it is one of its most prized features. Also, no wonder American festivals neglected it (too much nudity, swear words, full frontal male, drugs, alcohol, but it wasn't Tarantino's, so no).

Trouble is, many people think this kind of movie is pretentious. It depends on your definition. Pretentious films, to me, are those that think they can teach you something, like big morals or history. Sleeping Beauty doesn't even try that, it just lets you open a window on somebody's life. The assumptions and what you derive from what you see is entirely up to you.

So I didn't think it was pretentious, but I did think it lacked a bit of character and sprite. The acting could have been better, except for Emily Browning's which was deliberately plain.

Finally, despite all the nudity, there's not a glimpse of sensuality throughout the whole picture. And after a while one starts to understand how.