2/23/10.  DEFA Sleeping Beauty + Mickey Mouse Goes to Haiti

 

II. Film Short: NLRCÕs Micky Mouse Goes to Haiti

III.   Lecture: DEFA Sleeping Beauty

Sleeping Beauty as a Tale of Class Conflict:

  1. Court of the King modeled after opulence of French court prior to the French Revolution.
  2. King is haughty, decadent, absolute monarch, who doesnÕt give a damn about his subjects: main concern is that he be wealthy & powerful and that everyone be in awe of him for this.
  3. King deliberately scorns the 13th fairy, the fairy of Flei§ or Hard, Honest Work, Industry. He repeatedly states that that is an attribute for the poor and that a KingÕs daughter isnÕt in need of this gift. He removes the fairyÕs picture from the gallery and deliberately insults her at the Christening. The aristocracy agree with him about of the value ÒworkÓ but his advisers and the fairy remind him that the prosperity of his country depends on hard work coupled with the other virtues (beauty, art, music, learning, etc).
  4. The King orders that all of the spindles in the country be collected, under pain of death for hiding one or protecting someone else, but the common people protest. The army goes into each home and takes the spindles by force, with the women protesting that they are being deprived of their livelihood and their families will starve. The soldiers tell them coldly that the King doesnÕt give a damn. Orders are orders, unless they want to be executed. The land falls into a period of desperate famine and unemployment, etc.

 Film Clip: DEFA Sleeping Beauty (Spindle Gathering Scene)

DEFA Prince:

  1. Prince must have the qualities of being genuinely in love with Sleeping Beauty: canÕt be after wealth or power, has to be fleissig, hard working, modest, and concerned about the common people.
  2. The Fairy of Flei§ gives him a task, which he risks his life to perform, and then gives him 3 tests to tempt him with wealth, power, and a rich princess. He passes all the tests and she directs him to the castle.
  3. The thorns sprout red roses and part for him to enter.

Film Clip: Prince enters castle

Marriage/Happy End:

  1. As everyone in castle wakes up, Prince asks for SBÕs hand in marriage.
  2. When the King hears that he is not as rich and wealthy as the Princess, he denies him her hand.
  3. The 13th Fairy intervenes and says that absolutism went out in the last century, the economic foundations of Europe have changed, and that the Prince has the proper qualities to be a just and fair ruler. She places the crowns on the Prince & Princess.
  4. The nobility flee the castle in panic, while the common people stream in to celebrate the wedding as a true folk fest!
  5. Since the 13th Fairy has taught Sleeping Beauty how to spin prior to pricking her finger, she now demonstrates the art of spinning to the common folk, so that the country can again attain prosperity.
  6. Everyone lives Happily Ever After.

VI. Final Film Clip: DEFA Sleeping Beauty: wedding scene