La belle endormie

The Sleeping Beauty, according to director Catherine Breillat, is the tomboy-like Princess Anastasia, who has a predilection for clocks and dictionaries. Unlike her fairytale namesake, the princess dies at the age of six and wakes up 100 years later at the age of 16 ('childhood lasts too long,' according to one of the good fairies). During her sleep, Anastasia has a dream life in which she meets her proverbial prince and immediately loses him to the Snow Queen. On her quest for Peter, she has adventures with a xenophobic dwarf, a royal albino family and a sorceress in a tepee while she also makes friends with a murderous gypsy girl. The Sleeping Beauty reflects in colourful, stylised, fairytale images and dialogues on childhood and puberty - a time that cannot pass quickly enough for those who experience it - and on the confusing period of budding sexuality.