4) Maleficent (2014)
Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned – or so suggests this alternative take on the tale of Sleeping Beauty. Essentially a prequel, or an origin story for one of the genre’s most infamous villains, Maleficent features Angelina Jolie in the title role, and Elle Fanning as Aurora (aka Sleeping Beauty). With a script written by Linda Woolverton (The Lion King), the film is the directorial debut of Robert Stromberg and uses both the traditional fairy tale La Belle au bois dormant by Charles Perrault, and Erdman Penner’s story adaptation for Disney’s Sleeping Beauty animation of 1959 as source material.
This latest re-telling introduces Maleficent as a happy young faerie – pure-of-heart, and living peacefully on the Moors. When an invading army threatens the land, she steps forward to become its greatest protector – defeating the threat, but then suffering the most heinous betrayal at the hands of the man she loves, who desires the throne more than he desires her. Filled with the need for vengeance, she retreats to the Moors and declares herself Queen of a dark and disturbing kingdom. She is drawn out by the news of the imminent christening of the child of her betrayer, however – whereupon she appears and curses the infant.
This version of the story of Maleficent highlights an interesting point about traditional fairy tales in general. Often, the story is driven by the actions or needs of female characters – be they evil stepmothers, evil faeries, evil witches, or compliant women enabling abuses by others. But, in cinematic versions of these tales, they are pantomime villains – evil for evil’s sake, driven by power, vanity, vengeance, or money. Here, we have a look at what is rustling behind that curtain and, lo and behold, it is betrayal by a loved one.