Blancanieves 2012

A.O. Scott, New York Times: "Blancanieves" deftly blends cinematic antiquarianism, period atmosphere and primal emotions. Read more

Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal: Alfonso de Vilallonga's music isn't mere accompaniment, it's a score with rich emotional resonance. The silents, as this film suggests, achieved aesthetic marvels before sound came along to set things back for a while. Read more

Dennis Harvey, Variety: This year's crowded field of Snow White movies has a winner, at least in terms of quality, in Pablo Berger's delightful Blancanieves. Read more

Noel Murray, AV Club: Blancanieves' plot is gimmicky, but Berger mainly uses it as a line on which to hang one craftily shot and cut setpiece after another ... Read more

Peter Keough, Boston Globe: Had Berger gone deeper into Rafita's sad passion he might have passed beyond the safe frontiers of Disney and into the twisted realm of Bunuel. Read more

Ben Sachs, Chicago Reader: If you're looking for visual kicks, this offers plenty. Read more

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: From Spain, here's a miracle of fairy tale repurposing: a version of the Brothers Grimm's "Snow White," set in Spanish bullfighting country in the late 1920s. Writer-director Pablo Berger's Blancanieves goes all the way with its concept, and then further. Read more

Jordan Hoffman, Film.com: This gorgeous silent film is an unexpected gift from the gods of pure cinema. Read more

Wesley Morris, Grantland: What Berger does with the actors, the sight gags, the close-ups, the music, the photography is close to perfection. Read more

Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times: In an attempt to be both modern and traditional, this gorgeously made film ends up betwixt and between. Read more

Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald: Blancanieves, which won 10 Goyas (Spain's equivalent of the Oscars) and was a smash hit in its native Spain, has traces of a kinky undertone and an uncommon willingness to embrace the darkness inherent in this fairy tale. Read more

Stanley Kauffmann, The New Republic: The Brothers Grimm would have been surprised, possibly amused. Read more

John Anderson, Newsday: Sensuous, mischievous, hotblooded retelling of the old Teutonic fairy tale. Read more

Anthony Lane, New Yorker: As if bewitched, the legend of Snow White is transferred to Seville in the early twentieth century and transformed into high melodrama. Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: It creates something new out of something old. And it does it by treating a treasured children's story with the grown-up respect it deserves, and retelling it with a smile - but never a wink. Read more

Ella Taylor, NPR: A grotesquely beautiful new take on the Snow White fable by Spanish writer-director Pablo Berger. Read more

Elizabeth Weitzman, New York Daily News: We're not in Disney's world. Berger knows his Grimm, and he suffuses his entrancing fairy tale with a moving sense of melancholy. Read more

Farran Smith Nehme, New York Post: The purest, boldest re-imagining of silent cinema yet. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: It is a full-bodied silent film of the sort that might have been made by the greatest directors of the 1920s, if such details as the kinky sadomasochism of this film's evil stepmother could have been slipped past the censors. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: Most films are experiences to be ignored or at best forgotten. "Blancanieves" is a little classic to be treasured. Read more

Sarah Nicole Prickett, Globe and Mail: Berger, like his rad forebear Luis Bunuel, marries poetry to film. Read more

Liam Lacey, Globe and Mail: While the story, shorn of its supernatural elements, is mired in abuse and tragedy, its effect is sensual and superficial. Read more

Linda Barnard, Toronto Star: A sensual and sophisticated retelling of a beloved fairytale re-imagined as a homage to European silent cinema, Spanish writer-director Pablo Berger's black-and-white Blancanieves will leave you transfixed. Read more

Anna Smith, Time Out: The running time is a bit indulgent, but the journey is delightful. Read more

Joshua Rothkopf, Time Out: Verdu so fully dominates the drama as the gold-digging stepmother-all arched eyebrows and curled lips-that you wonder how much we've lost in the transition to sound. Read more

Chuck Wilson, Village Voice: So witty, riveting, and drop-dead gorgeous that moviegoers may forget to notice that they can't hear the dialogue. Read more