Le Dernier Chaperon Rouge

The French have a way with beauty, style elegance and class. Argue all you want, but it’s true. Sure, they can be rude, obstinate and boastful, but the last time that I checked, we weren’t exactly leading the way in politeness, courtesy and humility, so quit your whining for a moment and we shall continue.

It was about twelve years ago when I first discovered a movie called Dobermann, which starred zombiehamster favourite Vincent Cassel and a (then relatively unknown) Monica Belluci. The movie was an exercise in glamorous excess, hyped up violence, ridiculously over the top action sequences and nauseatingly slick camerawork. In short, this was a teenage boy’s wet dream of a movie.

A few months ago, two delightful French friends of mine returned home, leaving about a hundred of their DVD’s in my safekeeping until they returned, or I went over to see them. I had been using them to work on my linguistic skills which remain schoolboy at best, but I digress. It was with delight that I unearthed a triple disc version of Dobermann and with glee; I dove into the extras to find something of unparalleled beauty which I never knew existed.

Director Jan Kounen had also made several short films in the run up to this particular feature, and one in particular is essential viewing. Le Dernier Chaperon Rouge (The Last Red Riding Hood) is a 25 minute masterpiece. A reworking of the classic fairy tale, it retains the horror and mystique that the originals were intended to possess.

Dance and song take as much precedence as dialogue and visual stimulus. In a post apocalyptic world, a monstrous beast takes a young Red Riding Hood capture, viciously removing parts of her legs. Broken hearted and desperate, she manages to kill the creature, but is left crippled and captured, waiting for a successor to inflict the same fate upon.

The woodland springs to life, with rabbits, flowers, mushrooms and rocks, dancing and singing in anticipation of the arrival of the last existing Red Hood. They eagerly convince the (wonderfully portrayed) Big Bad Wolf to summon her from her underground slumber.

I will not divulge anymore of the plot because near in mind that this is a short film. The colourful and playful visual aesthetics are fantastically juxtaposed with the dark and gothic elements that are also at play. I cannot implore you enough to seek this out, I have included a link, but to do this justice, seek a DVD quality version.

Emmanuelle Bèart is delightful as the Last Red Riding Hood and the humour in her performance is second only to her innocence. There are very few short films that leave you so thirsty for more upon conclusion; it is a shame that this seems to have been lost in obscurity. For any fans of Guillermo Del Toro, Terry Gilliam or David Lynch, this is a mini masterpiece that will not disappoint. If this is their cinematic standard, then it’s justifiable for the French to be as proud as they are of their cinematic output.

Version with English subs available here:    http://tinyurl.com/c8h2zz

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.