“a grim fairly tale”:
- perversion of the conventional fairy-tale narrative
- perversion in sexual coupling
- rupture in audience identification
Basic fairy-tale structure:
- Hero is given a task by a dispatcher
- Hero's reward will be the heroine
- Hero's task is to “liquidate a lack”: return an object taken by a villain.
- Hero sometimes receives aid from a magical agent
- After setbacks, hero vanquishes the villain, returns the object, receives the reward.
Notorious perversions:
- Prescott (dispatcher) turns the heroine over to the villain, with Devlin's consent
- Hero is reduced, heroine is turned into an agent
- Heroine is deliberately tainted
- Alicia finds the key and turns over the secret
- Villain, aided by devilish mother, turns Alicia into a sleeping beauty
- Devlin reasserts his heroism, leaves dispatcher behind, goes to the 'castle” and rescues the damsel in distress
- The villain gives the heroine (reward) to the hero, replacing the dispatcher in this function
The “axis of parents versus children”:
Father figures
- Alicia's father, who marks her
- Prescott offers a form of redemption
- Devlin violates “the law of the father” (Prescott's authority)
- Prescott turns Alicia over to the villain
Alex Sebastian
- Marries Alicia against the will of his mother
- Represents both son & husband-figure to his mother (incest motif)
- Represents both husband & father-figure to Alicia
Devlin's situation:
- Displaced by Prescott in the plot, also visually and through gift of necklace
- Displaced by Alex at the racetrack
- Parallel scenes: Alex with his mother who's in bed; Devlin with Prescott who's in bed
Two balcony scenes between Devlin and Alicia
- Changed situation is indicated by placement in frame as well as dialog, other content
Racetrack scene:
- Alex & mother
- Alicia & Devlin
- Alicia, Devlin, & Alex
Wine cellar scene
Rescue scene
- Recapitulates elements of the balcony scene
- “signifiers of separation” are transformed into signifiers of union
Role of the viewer:
- Balcony scene as “ménage a trois”
The viewer and Alex Sebastian:
Racetrack scene: Alex as voyeur
- Alex's gentlemanliness contrasts with Devlin's caddishness
- Spectators share his feeling of betrayal
- Final sequence: he is abandoned (shown from his pov), and the camera stays with him as he walks to his doom.