Category: Cinema

Fairy Tales: Behind-the-seams of the costumes for the film ‘Mirror Mirror’

Posted by QAGOMA   ●   17 Apr 2024

QAGOMA conservator Michael Marendy gives us an insight into Eiko Ishioka‘s exquisitely designed costumes made for the film Mirror Mirror (2012). The ‘Cream wedding dress’ costume (illustrated) worn by Julia Roberts as ‘Queen Clementianna’ is made from 70 metres of Duchess Silk Satin creating a multitude of overlapping petals and vine tendrils from bodice to…

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Fairy Tales: The history & hidden meaning of ‘Beauty and the Beast’

Posted by Sophie Hopmeier   ●   27 Mar 2024

Transformation is an essential element in the fairy tale tradition. A change of appearance can signal or conceal a character’s true identity. While some characters alter their own appearance to escape or trick others, many are victims — transfigured as punishment. The spells that trigger these transformations are, in many cases, broken by a character’s…

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Fairy Tales: Unmissable films & live music in March

Posted by Sophie Hopmeier   ●   28 Feb 2024

In March we venture into the surreal outer reaches of fairy tale cinema. The enchantment of fairy tales lies in their fantastical elements, which conjure uncanny images like pumpkin carriages, magic carpets, or houses made of gingerbread. Fairy tales significantly influenced the development of Surrealism, with Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1865) acknowledged as…

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Fairy Tales: Unmissable films in February

Posted by Sophie Hopmeier   ●   18 Feb 2024

In February, the Fairy Tales Cinema program explores the changing face of fairy tales and the ways they blend with other storytelling traditions to reflect particular moments in time. The fairy tale theorist and historian Jack Zipes has used the concept of the ‘meme’ to think about this ever-shifting continuity of storytelling, and the importance…

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