Luxembourgian director Anne Fontaine is an icon of Francophone cinema, with a 25-year filmmaking career glutted with César Award nominations and festival debuts. Though her work spans decades and genres, it has always been female-centered, and “White As Snow,” her 16th feature to date, is no exception.
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This modernized retelling casts Claire (Lou de Laâge) as its proverbial princess, a listless orphan working for the coldly maternal Maud (Isabelle Huppert). When Claire is unexpectedly kidnapped and, in an escape from death, winds up in a small mountain town, she finds herself surrounded by flirtatious men. (Seven, to be exact.) High on altitudinous air and newfound sexual pleasure, Claire finally lets her guard down — but she’s not safe just yet.
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Endlessly charming, visually lush, and laugh-out-loud funny, “White As Snow” is a campy dream. Huppert and de Laâge are winning in their contrasting characterizations — Huppert vapes menacingly and serves up fashionable cruelty, while an ebullient de Laâge fucks and frolics with joyous recklessness. The parts of this movie that are ridiculous (squirrels watching Claire have sex, aforementioned evil vaping) only make it more enjoyable to watch. Fontaine has leaned into the inherent insanity of fairy tales with alacrity, and it’s fun to watch something that was obviously so fun to make.
The movie’s three-part, 112-minute structure could use a trim, and there is troubling talk about how “pure” Claire’s white skin is, but overall “White As Snow” is a fairy tale worth reading cover to cover. Not only does its nonjudgmental approach to sex fly in the face of its hidebound source material, even the parts of this sexual escapade that are perhaps too cavalier (like, blurring the line on sexual assault) are enacted with such humor and happiness that it’s hard to walk out of this feature without feeling elated. With a robust and game cast (including supporters like Charles Berling and Pablo Pauly), and vibrant cinematography by Yves Angelo, you’re bound to leave “White As Snow” feeling enchanted. Or at least very entertained. [B+]
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