A girl’s life is never her own. 

If you know me personally you know I am obsessed with the history of fairytales and folktales, with Bluebeard being the height of my obsession. I should have realized with the framing device of the annoying very young sisters (like they aren’t even tweens!) reading the fairytale of Bluebeard that this film wouldn’t capture what makes the fairytale sizzle and sing. Bluebeard isn’t a fairytale that can be adapted within the gaze of a child. The sexual unease, the sensuality, the violent gendered relations of the narrative is terrain girls this young would in no way understand.

The film doesn’t introduce the central conceit of the key the lead is forbidden to use by Bluebeard until almost an hour into a film that is less than an hour and a half long. Like come on. Then, some of the story’s most important beats of this fairytale — Marie-Catherine’s curiosity, her terror, the reveal — is transposed into the mouth of a child in the narrative framing device which leeches anything of merit from the narrative. That’s such a crucial turning point. Why show the girl of the framing device walking through the blood of the former wives with fanciful indifference than the actual young lady experiencing this horrifying discovery?

Bluebeard is a figure who has an intriguing cinematic lineage. This fairytale highlights the fear of the patriarchy and the violence of men women have intimate relations with.  From ‘40s women’s pictures crossed with noir to the work of Angela Carter, Bluebeard is a fairytale that endures because it is so ripe with cognizant observations about femicide and misogyny and the way women’s curiosity is punished. I love this fairytale and gobble up all visions of it I can find, particularly those by women or functioning within genres that intrigue me. In that light, it is remarkable how devoid this film is of tension, intrigue, revelatory characterization. It’s not a totally bad film just a misguided one. The final image of Bluebeard and his wife suggest a weirder, more powerful film than the one we get.  I’ve never seen such a listless adaptation of such a vivid fairytale. What a shame!