The villain in the enchanted forest

Text: Igor Shevkun

IN MAY, THE LAST-WAITED MALFICENTS PREMIER - A REMEMBER OF THE FAMOUS DISNEY CINEMA "THE SLEEPING BEAUTY". AFTER YEARS LONG YEARS, THE SILENCE ON THE SCREEN FINALLY RETURNS THE ACTRESS, DIRECTOR, OSKARA OWNER AND SIMPLY SAMPLE MOTHER ANGELINA JOLIE, EXPERIENCING THE ROLE OF THE MAIN VILLAIN. WE HAVE LOOKED BEHIND THE SCENES OF THE DISNEY STUDIO TO DIVE INTO THE WORLD OF FANTASY AND TELL ABOUT THE SECRETS OF CREATING THE MOST EXPECTED FILM OF THE YEAR.

Back in 2009, the producers of Disney decided to retell the tale "Sleeping Beauty". In the new version of Charles Perrault's work, Angelina Jolie was invited to play the role of the sorceress of Maleficent, who, with the light hand of makeup artists, turned into an insidious villain with bright scarlet lips, huge horns on her head and a black leather coat fluttering from the wind. However, according to the actress, in the image of a witch, she felt quite comfortable and even involved her young daughter Vivienne Jolie-Pitt in the filming.

The baby played the role of Princess Aurora at a tender age and earned her first fee - $ 3,000 in just a week of filming. “Brad and I think it’s quite fun for our children to appear in bright episodic movie roles, and besides, we can see them more often on the set,” says Angelina Jolie. “But we did not set ourselves such a task, it happened spontaneously .

Frankly, we would not want our children to become actors. Just the other kids were afraid to come up to me in this creepy way - with horns, claws and wings. And Viv said that I was very cool, and freely talked to me in the frame. "Maleficent performed by Jolie became even tougher, more bloodthirsty.

They say that her elder brother James persuaded Angelina Jolie to take part in the project, and the total fee for the role was $ 15 million. “As a child, I loved Maleficent,” says Jolie. “She was my favorite Disney character. I was afraid of her, but still loved. The script captured me literally from the very first lines. But I hope that everyone, especially the girls, will understand the importance "struggle for justice. You can be militant and at the same time soft, feminine and sensual, combining different facets of female nature."

In the story, the sorceress Maleficent defends her possessions from the gross invasion of people who brought chaos and destruction. To protect his subjects, Maleficent has to call upon powerful dark forces to help. In the heat of struggle, she casts a terrible spell on the newborn daughter of the king, the beautiful Aurora.

But, watching how the little princess grows, Maleficent begins to doubt the correctness of his act - after all, it is Aurora who can breathe new life into the magical forest kingdom. But first of all, the film “Maleficent” is a delight for the eyes and ears: California symphony orchestra James Newton Howard frantically sounds, singer Lana Del Rey prepared a cover version of the song “Once Upon a Dream” from the original 1959 cartoon for sophisticated music lovers, and Angelina Jolie, Charlto Copley, Elle Fanning and Sam Riley are top notch actors.

The Wizard of Oz

In modern cinema, a mixture of genres has long been observed, when in one picture there are elements of fantasy, and thriller, and drama, and an adventure film. In the painting "Maleficent" you can notice the same trend. Long before the American artist Robert Stromberg received the Oscar gold figurines for the best scenery for Alice in Wonderland and Avatar, critics fell in love with him, and after the films showed excellent results at the box office, Stromberg was given a green light bosses of major film companies. In the wake of success, it was he who occupied the directorial chair of Maleficent, leaving behind competitors such as Tim Burton and David Yates, whom Disney had originally planned to invite.

“I wanted the film to have not only elements of fiction and surrealism. It was important for me that Maleficent was as realistic as possible,” director Robert Stromberg admitted. “In some of my early works I used surreal elements, making them the most important components "In Maleficent, we decided to resort to the opposite method: we started from the real and distorted it to the unbelievable. So, I suppose, in this picture there will be something new not only for the audience, but also for me." The director-debutant is a good tightrope walker: he knows the measure and feels the line. Therefore, he has heroism without pathos, romanticism without strain, and humor is always out of place.

Treasures of the Kingdom

The undoubted trump card of the film were costumes for characters who live at the junction of fairy tales and the Middle Ages. This important mission was entrusted to designer Anna Sheppard, who loudly declared herself, creating clothes for films such as The Pianist, Inglourious Basterds, Schindler's List, and Washington Square. The experiments of this Polish artist were always ahead of the general trends and earned her a reputation as a movie fashion guru.

In total, Sheppard and her colleagues made more than 2,000 costumes for the film by hand. “I had to turn on all my imagination to create the costumes that Rob invented,” says Anna. “Fortunately, he presented them in great detail and was extremely accurate in the description. I knew that I would have to cross the border of the real world and plunge into fairy tale world to do the job. "

Thanks to the penetrating look of Sheppard, the heroines became the owners of clothes of unusual graphic solutions: dresses with a fleecy structure and sharp spikes and horns, hats, generously decorated with reptile skin. The heavy outfits adorned with the feathers of outlandish birds, black leather and chain mail look especially dramatic when the characters "walk" them in the futuristic smoke of a mysterious forest.

Little Princess

Princess Aurora (Sleeping Beauty) was played in the film by the 16-year-old actress El Fanning (the younger sister of Dakota Fanning), who seems to have finally decided to become one of the most popular American starlet stars. Since the girl starred in the movie "I Am Sam" with Sean Penn and Michelle Pfeiffer, and then played in "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" along with Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett, the serious acting potential of spectacular El has been heatedly discussed in Hollywood. “It was just amazing,” El tells of his work with Angelina Jolie. “I remember our very first meeting in London when we were given trial hairstyles and makeup. I saw her, and although we had never met before, Angelina hugged and she said we’ll have fun filming. And we really did a great job! "

Today, every appearance of El on the red carpet causes increased media attention. El Fanning is always in trend - whether she is in a turquoise dress from Marc Jacobs, decorated with glass beads Marchesa evening dress or in a mini dress from Valentino. “Most people know Aurora as the Sleeping Beauty from the classic cartoon,” El tells about her heroine. “But what impresses me in our film is that the audience can get to know her better, because before she was just a sweet girl who was sleeping most of the film. And now there is an opportunity to understand its essence and inner world, to discern in it a free spirit, openness and at the same time innocence. "

The cast, sets, costumes and music before the release of the screens doomed the picture to success. In addition, the tape has a philosophical subtext. The thought runs through the entire film: revenge and betrayal are not a reason to stop being open and curious and dream of justice.

And only then good will certainly conquer evil. Tired of noisy blockbusters, we must admit that it was precisely such fabulous films from the masters of the happy end that we have not had enough lately.

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