Anyone else rooting for Sigourney Weaver's character?
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DarcyBrandon — 15 years ago(July 19, 2010 12:14 AM)
I was with her up until she killed her brother and then tried to kill everyone else around her. Lilly was a brat but she realized what she did wrong after Claudia lost her child/ Lilly's half brother.
But isn't that what makes the movie so great? We feel for all the characters, both for Lilly and Claudia. -
angelkissed_Redhead — 15 years ago(September 21, 2010 08:39 PM)
I kept waiting for those classic Snow White-ish characteristics to show up. You know, kind, wonderful, everyone loves her? But no towards the end I was wondering why the miner fell in love with her. I don't see what he sees, obviously.
Sorry Sir! I just thought you'd be fuller, and more more metal! -
Haifis — 15 years ago(November 03, 2010 07:26 PM)
A scene which made me feel sorry for Claudia was when she offered a dress to her step daughter to wear.
A dress she clearly took the time to make.
You can see the hurt in her eyes when Lilli rejects the dress.
"But it's.sopretty..," Claudia says saddened and a bit shocked that there's nothing she can do to gain her step daughter's approval.
Then next, Claudia singing a beautiful song to an entire ballroom only to be interrupted by Lilli coming in and Claudia's song being cut short as the band breaks into a song and everyone begins dancing together and Claudia is left alone and ignored.
The look on Claudia's face as she is completely absorbed into the crowd of dancing guests, that sad look of loneliness and abandonment.
Such a desolate facial expression.
And when she softly moans her husband's name as she's going into labor and she's once again ignored.
So heartbreaking. -
velvetcrowbar — 15 years ago(November 12, 2010 05:27 AM)
10-year old me was rooting for Evil Step-Mother too. Probably because of Sigourney Weaver, and innocent ingenue-types have always been annoying to me.
I recommend everyone go out and read "Snow, Glass, Apples" by Neil Gaiman. It all makes sense. More sense than the Disney version. -
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SCY385-1 — 14 years ago(October 10, 2011 11:58 AM)
I don't know if I was 'rooting' for her so much as I felt sorry for her. She really seemed to lose her mind after she lost her child. There were twinges of evil in her before, but losing the baby seemed to push her over the edge so to speak.
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zany_beat — 13 years ago(May 04, 2012 07:32 PM)
Having not seen this all through, but tending to read spoilers, I'm also starting to see how Sigourney's character came into the situation with all good intent.
I see in Lilli a perceptive but cold nature: she senses there's something 'off' about Claudia and so automatically rejects her without any thought of how Claudia feels. Being so spoiled, Lilli assumes the world ought to cater to her.
So ya, at the moment I'm on Team Claudia. If what Lilli picked up on is an evil streak in Claudia, tho', eventually she would have shown it anyway, no matter what Lilli did or didn't do. -
Tsavo — 13 years ago(July 11, 2012 02:36 PM)
Alright first, when we first meet Lilly, she's incredibly young, and attached to her father and the memory of her mother. Well intentioned as Claudia was, I did not read it as Lilly being a spoiled brat quite as much as it was her clinging to both her mothers memory and her father. It's not always easy for children to move on to something they got accustomed too. Now of course as a teenager yes Lilly was a bit on the spoiled side, but she was also a teenager, and as some pointed out, we did in fact see her realize what she had done wrong and try to make it up to Claudia, this particular mending of the relationship under normal circumstances may well have continued, but claudia was already lost. I've known some incredibly spoiled brats, but Lilly wasn't that bad, beleive me.
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filterfan86-1 — 9 years ago(May 11, 2016 10:18 PM)
contains some spoilers
I was. Looking back at this movie Lillian did not give her step mother a chance. She was the one who rejected Claudia first. Lillian had what was coming to her. After the baby had died I think that is what sent Claudia over the edge. Here you have a bratty step child and now your baby died is recipe for insanity. To me Lillian had some type of reverse oedipus complex with her dad. Really look at it again to me she was jealous of Claudia because she "took" her dad from her and was obsess with looking like her mother. That right there was some key points. Lillian was a bratty reverse oedious complex whiney lil twat who needed to be exiled. Her being poison gave her a dose of reality. This Snow White did not have the Disney type magic neither did it have the feminist tone but it was just pure terror. It's on a different level and a retelling. Snow white was not so sweet and innocent and it's good that it showed her being more flawed rather than all so cute and innocent. She was no victim in this movie. -
beancounter513 — 9 years ago(December 09, 2016 09:48 AM)
Just watched this movie again. While Lilli was spoiled and kind of useless, that was how noble women were at the time of the Crusades. They were supposed to be decorative and make a good marriage. They were also supposed to produce healthy and strong sons.
It seemed to me that the father never got over losing Lilli's mother and only remarried because he wanted (or needed) a son. He doted on Lilli because she looked like her mother. The father didn't even take down the first wife's portrait knowing that the soon to be next wife was moving in.
Claudia was rather vain and liked being the center of attention. The point of the scene with the dress was that she was trying to dress Lilli like she was still a girl instead of a woman. Claudia said that it was a new dress and Lilli said that she had other dresses just like it. She's trying to win the heart of the young doctor so she finds one of her mother's dresses because she's been told all of her life what a great beauty that her mother was. So, Claudia gets all upset when Lilli walks into the ballroom and everyone turns to see how good she looks (as a woman and no longer a child).
It's impossible not to feel bad for Claudia when she loses the baby and pretty well loses all of her marbles. Yet, she focuses all of her pain and rage on Lilli when it took nine years for her to even get pregnant. It seems to me that she would want Lilli to find a husband and move out of the house but she seems more obsessed with being the most beautiful woman around. -
lrdcharlton — 9 years ago(December 13, 2016 03:34 PM)
I can see why she aimed her rage at Lilly and beauty was only a side part. Yes, it took her 9 years to get pregnant and over those 9 years Lilly was brat towards her no matter how kid Claudia was. Claudia loses the baby when Lilly wore her mothers dress and came out during Claudia performance stealing all the attention. The stress threw her into premature Labor and she lost the baby and never could have another. The stress of the ordeal is taxing on her appearance and that is when the mirror tool advantage of her weakness and planted the idea of it all being Lillys fault. Her aiming her anger at Lilly was not illogical.
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beancounter513 — 9 years ago(December 15, 2016 09:35 AM)
Or was it the reaction of her husband to Lilly in her mother's dress that really got under Claudia's skin? Not saying that Lilly wasn't a brat but Claudia already had some deep seated issues and it seems fairly obvious that she resented how close Lilly and her father were. Even before Lilly shows up, she makes the comment, "Must everything be about Lilly?" (Paraphrasing there). She also prompts him to compliment her gown. She saw Lilly as a rival for her husband's affection.
On a different tangent, Claudia ages rapidly after Lilly stabs the mirror. It would be interesting to have Claudia's back story. How long had she been trying to have a baby anyway and were there other husbands? She had all those potions to maintain her youthful beauty after all. My real point is that Claudia had already lost a few bananas from her bunch before she blamed Lilly for being a typical teenage girl as well as for losing her baby. -
lrdcharlton — 9 years ago(December 15, 2016 12:02 PM)
She also prompts him to compliment her gown. She saw Lilly as a rival for her husband's affection.
Funny you should bring that up. I recall seeing that scene the first time I saw the film,however, when viewing it recently that part is always omitted and it shows Claudia walking with her husband while others wish her well on the baby then it goes to her singing. I thought I may have been mistaking it from another film. Anyhow, at that point I think she was finished with Lilly. She had been kind to her all that time while Lilly only rejected her, Lilly admits this herself. Why would Claudia want to focus on her? As far as asking her husband why he didn't address how she looked, that was a weakness that was always there. It was obvious that she was insecure about her appearance, but unlike other adaptations, it was not her main motive. After loosing the baby and then seeing her looks deteriorate was traumatic. Her looks were all she had left. Prior to the loss of her child she was a women looking for a happy family life with a weakness for acceptance and her appearance. I think the husband enabled a lot of the issues between Claudia and Lilly. I also found it incredibly cold that Lord Hoffman did not go and comfort Claudia after the loss of her baby. When he was told she was unable to have anymore he left.