7 Dwarves Analysis

After coming off of freshly watching two somber dramas: I chose to lighten things up a little bit in choosing my third movie that I would watch for this class. Considering how much I enjoyed the first movie: The Lives of Others- I thought I would go back to another German made movie in The Seven Dwarves. What immediately attracted me to this movie was my predisposition for enjoying comedies, fantasies, and all things fairytale. The Seven Dwarves is categorized as a foreign comedy that tells the story of an ensemble cast. It is essentially a grown up adaptation of one of Disney's classics: Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. The Seven Dwarves can further be described as a feel good story, with much of its humor being derived from farce, and fast paced dialogue. The movie makes great use of visual tropes, using occasional flashbacks to paint a clearer picture of the movie's exposition. There are many references to American made movies and popular culture, as well as reoccurring jokes (repetition)- that serve to entertain the audience without being overly offensive, or dramatic. The overall tone of the movie changes drastically based on the location of each scene. On one side of the river you have the dystopian culture- under rule from the all-powerful and oppressive Queen. Scenes taking place in the castle and on the eastern side of the river are decidedly dark and gritty, with an overall sense of gloom and predominant evil. The western side of the river: which is forbidden to everyone subject to the Queen's rule- is actually a pristine and beautiful forest, which is where we find the seven dwarves living. This side of the river is bright and beautiful, though the map at the beginning shows it to be dark and tormenting. It looked like to me that they often times used a bright white overhead light to achieve a sort of holy or dreamlike effect to the viewer. The Seven Dwarves, in my opinion: is successful at creating humor by using farce to poke fun of popular