MIRRORMASK

UK, 2005, 101 minutes, Colour.
Jason Barry, Stephanie Leonidas, Rob Brydon, Gina Mc Kee, Dora Bryan, Stephen Fry, Andy Hamilton, Simon Harvey, Lenny Henry.
Directed by Dave Mc Kean.

Mirror Mask is a fantasy – based on stories and comic narratives by Neil Gaiman and director Dave Mc Kean. The two have strong reputations as authors and artists. This is an attempt to bring their stories as well as their visual style to the screen. Audiences will be reminded of a number of fantasies, especially from the Jim Henson Studios, films like Labyrinth.

The film is dark, very much a dream of the heroine, played by Stephanie Leonidas. In fact, she has to play two characters: herself and her anti-self.

In her dreams, Helena escapes from the circus and goes into a fantasy world where two kingdoms are opposed. Her quest is to find a Mirror Mask in order to save the kingdom. In that way she will be able to return home. She encounters all kinds of characters: Jason Barry as the sympathetic Valentine, Rob Brydon as the prime minister, Gina Mc Kee as the Queen of Light and the Queen of Shadows. Interesting supporting roles are taken by Dora Bryan as Aunt Nan and Stephen Fry as Librarian. Lenny Henry appears as Cops 1 to 4.

The film will be of great interest for those who delight in fantasy and the fantastic.

1.The impact of the fantasy? A world of magic? A world of fable? A film for adults, for children?

2.The importance of the visual style, the blend of reality and fantasy? Brighton, the town, the hospital? The circus? The anchor? The importance of the musical score?

3.The dream tone of the film? The work of the illustrators, the drawings? The fairy characters? The humans? The range of creatures? Benign, frightening? Nightmare? The mother appearing as the Queen of Light, the Queen of Shadows? The guide, the clown? Helena and her appearing in her own dream, as herself, her anti-self?

4.The situation, the circus, Helena’s father? The circus acts and performance? The mother and the tickets? Helena and her moodiness, the clashes, running away? Staying, her performance? Family tension?

5.The mother, her selling the tickets, interactions with the customers, collapse, going to the hospital, Helena at the hospital, her father, grandmother, Aunt Nan?

6.The dream, the psychological dimensions of the dream, the characters in the dream as being part of Helena’s self? Her own self? The mother as the two queens? Valentine as the guide? The other characters appearing (and the echoes of such stories as The Wizard of Oz)? The creatures, their mythical nature, the fairies? The soul figures for Helena?

7.The quest, Alice in Wonderland overtones? Through the Looking Glass overtones? Helena, free? The importance of the mirror, the mask? Her mother’s advice? Seeing in front?

8.Valentine, the mask, the character, appearance? Help and talk? Appearing and disappearing? Comic style?

9.The creatures, the shadow aspects of Helena’s character and self? Frightening, helping?

10.The queens and their talk, mother images? Destruction? Helena and her destroying the images? Valentine?

11.The mask, its mystique, the role of masks, the role of mirrors? Valentine, Helena’s discovery, wearing the mask?

12.The Helena of the search, the Helena of the mask, the sleeping Helena, the waking Helena?

13.How satisfying the resolution of this dream and quest?