AllMovie

French provocateur Catherine Breillat (Fat Girl, Bluebeard) continues her deconstruction of classic fairytales with her latest, The Sleeping Beauty. Cursed at birth by an evil fairy, Anastasia is destined to prick her finger and die at the age of sixteen. When three feckless fairy sisters discover this they hatch a plan to alter the curse: rather than die, Anastasia will sleep for 100 years. While in slumber, Anastasia comes of age through a series of vivid dreams, filled with charming princes, dwarves, gypsies and magical creatures. When she reawakens a fully-formed adolescent, she finds that in real life, happy endings are more elusive than in our fantasies. Beautifully designed by Francois-Renaud Labarthe and photographed by the great Denis Lenoir (Carlos), this constantly surprising, thought-provoking investigation of the female psyche reaffirms Breillat as one of the most inventive and risk-taking of contemporary French auteurs.