163
Epilogue:
The Importance
of Enchantment
It seems that the fairy tale film is experiencing both the best of times,
and the worst of times: enjoying increased critical and industrial atten-
tion, while the films deemed worthy of commendation appear to be
relatively small. Cinematic interest in rejigging familiar stories is long
established, of course, and fairy tales largely ‘presold’ in this respect,
with star appeal, an epic scale and special effects best appreciated on
the big screen all figuring prominently as major incentives for studio
investment. However, recent examples have largely proved to be
disappointing – particularly given the many talented
figures involved in
dismal projects such as
Jack the Giant Slayer
and
Oz the Great and Powerful
.
The likelihood of further releases of similar ilk, effects-driven crowd
pleasers without substance or staying power, would seem to corroborate
critical misgivings about the co-opting of fairy tales for commercial
ends. Nonetheless, as I said at the outset of this book,
the more obvious
fairy tale adaptations are by no means the most interesting examples,
and although it is easy to become frustrated or discouraged in response
to so many creative opportunities missed, it is more important to focus
on areas of continued innovation and inspiration.
Back in 1993, in a statement coinciding with the BFI’s season of
screenings,
Cinema and the Realms of Enchantment
, Marina Warner com-
mended the fairy tale film for ‘its capacity to face up to real-life difficul-
ties and deal with them imaginatively, to make the best of adversity’,
adding, ‘if a popular medium can’t challenge the status quo, as well
as
support it, we might as well all shrug ourselves into an early grave’
(qtd in Petrie 1993: 3). In her subsequent book,
From the Beast to the
Blonde
(1995), she admits some concern about the absorption of fairy
tales into popular commercial culture, yet again strives to counter cyni-
cism, contending that ‘it seems a simple admission of defeat to weep
164
Fairy Tale and Film
and gnash one’s teeth at the thought of EuroDisney’ just as ‘it is simply
unthinking and lazy to denounce all the works of Disney and his legacy’
(1995: 414).
1
Two decades on, in her latest book,
Stranger Magic: Charmed
States and the Arabian Nights
(2012), Warner reiterates a need to reassess
what fairy tales have to offer us, affirming ‘the uses of enchantment in
a sceptical age’ (432) as a means of recognising some level of unity in a
very divided time, claiming that the universal appeal of so many tales
provides important common ground. As ever, her faith in the fairy tale is
encouraging, as is her attempt to positively reclaim what ‘enchantment’
constitutes, serving as both a source of pleasure and a crucial means of
reconceiving reality. The term ‘enchantment’ has been highly debated
over
the years, used by Bruno Bettelheim to describe the psychoanalytic
work performed by fairy tales, yet serving as a byword for being duped,
according to Jack Zipes, who claims that fairy tales have largely been
deployed to instruct and inhibit individuals as part of the civilising pro-
cess. ‘Enchantment’ is thus aligned with an ideological endorsement of
the status quo and ‘breaking the magic spell’ a way to perceive and resist
such devices, a means to ‘do away with the mystique and charisma that
pervade our lives so that we can grasp the deceptive and arbitrary uses
of enchantment and entertainment’ (Zipes, 2002a: x). Notably, however,
while fairy tales have frequently been used to deceive us,
Zipes claims
that they may also serve as an antidote, tempering a degree of wariness
with some optimism in arguing that ‘within the tales lies the hope of
self-transformation and a better world’ (2002a: xi). Arguing that nar-
ratives can be ‘re-utilised’, he considers ‘Utopianism’ a key incentive,
2
and although he has become increasingly cynical about our ability to
achieve these ideals, Zipes nonetheless asserts a continued need for
fantasy ‘to contemplate alternatives to our harsh realities’, claiming
‘more than titillation, we need the fantastic for resistance’ (2009: 48).
Warner
reiterates the sentiment, yet ‘enchantment’ is not perceived as a
euphemism for delusion, but a flight of fancy with a sense of purpose,
serving as a necessary prelude to change. As she contends, ‘the strange
and admirable pleasures of magic are connected to the acts of enchant-
ment and the transfiguring effects of imaginary possibilities’, aligning
this capacity with ‘the prophetic ability to imagine what has not yet
come to be’ (2012: 433). Put simply, without being able to conceive an
alternate reality, we have little hope of creating one.
As Tatar asserts,
‘fairy tales are good to think with’ (2013) and to rethink our view of the
world, yet most of all to enable us to imagine that progress is possible.
Breaking the magic spell should not come at the cost of believing in the
most compelling aspect of fairy tales: the extraordinary transformations
