Snow White Winter: "Schneewittchen" (1971 Swiss/German short)
In Switzerland in 1971, German director Rudolf Jugert produced a series of live action German-language shorts based on the Grimms' fairy tales: Hansel and Gretel, King Thrushbeard, All-Kinds-of-Fur, The Goose Girl, The Peasant's Clever Daughter, Mother Holle, and the first entry in the series, Snow White.
This 19-minute short is basically a direct translation of the Grimm's tale to the screen. Its only omissions are the opening with Snow White's birth mother, the wicked Queen's eating of the boar's organs that she thinks are Snow White's, and the poisoned comb. Its only added scene comes at the beginning, when Snow White's father the King introduces his new wife to his daughter (whose existence he apparently hadn't mentioned to her before their wedding), and the Queen promptly feigns faintness and withdraws at the unnerving sight of Snow White's beauty. The only other notable change is that Snow White is a young woman from the start, not a child.
Otherwise, this is an extremely faithful Snow White, with most of the dialogue taken word-for-word from the Grimms' tale. The Queen tries to kill Snow White first with a suffocating bodice, then with a poisoned apple. The Prince doesn't appear until he finds Snow White lying in her glass coffin, but instantly (a little too instantly for the screen compared to the printed page) her beauty captivates him and he begs the seven dwarfs to give the coffin to him. The dwarfs bid a sad farewell to Snow White, and this is the last we see of them; they aren't present when, moments later, one of the Prince's servants stumbles while carrying the coffin and jars the piece of apple from Snow White's throat. This is also one of the very, very few adaptations of the tale to give the Queen the same horrific death the Grimms gave her. She's invited to the Prince and Snow White's wedding without being told the name of the bride, and when she arrives, the Prince forces her to dance in a pair of red-hot iron shoes until she falls down dead.
Still, just because this is an especially faithful and straightforward version doesn't mean it lacks creativity. While the production's general look and feel is similar to the 1955 and 1961 German film versions, the handsome costumes set the story in the 18th century, making this one of the few screen versions to clearly take place in a post-medieval era. Meanwhile, the Queen's chant of "Mirror, Mirror on the wall..." is always sung, not spoken, and the mirror sings its replies in an operatic baritone voice. (In addition to these snippets of song, the dwarfs also sing a marching song, as in so many other versions.) The dwarfs are played by children, but with their faces covered in prosthetics to make them look like little old men and with funny voices to make them sound gnome-like; the effect falls somewhere in between charming and creepy, though charm was the obvious intent. Snow White's glass coffin has a unique pyramidal design, and is inscribed with the words "Here rests Snow White: She had to die because she was too beautiful." And the very choice to kill the Queen with hot iron shoes is a creative choice, despite coming straight from the Grimms' tale, because so few adaptations do it. While the scene isn't especially convincing visually, a fitting sense of terror is still evoked by the swirling camerawork that mirrors the screaming Queen's enforced dance.
Like the Grimms' tale, this Snow White is dominated by the Queen, and Austrian actress Herta Kravina plays her jealous rage and madness to the hilt, although in her glaring copper red wig, whether or not she looks like the second greatest beauty in the land is debatable. Her rich alto singing voice is also an advantage for her sung requests to the magic mirror. (After watching this, I learned that in 1956 she voiced the singing dog Peg in the original German dub of Disney's Lady and the Tramp.) Meanwhile, 16-year-old Maresa Hörbiger is an effective Snow White and the rest of the cast members fill their roles well all around.
Is this short an essential Snow White? No. But it's still definitely worth watching, especially if you want to see a screen translation of the Grimm's tale that's far more faithful than most.
@superkingofpriderock, @ariel-seagull-wings
yousharknotpass
dailybridgerton
amandla
baratheonpilled
