Movie review: The Company of Wolves (1984)

This is a fairy tale about a girl's sexual coming of age. It uses Little Red Riding Hood as the basis for the story, with the red cape symbolizing menarche or menstruation. (Reminiscent of Laurie Anderson's song, "Beautiful Red Dress".) There's a lot of playful and odd symbolism in the movie, not all of which I understand, although some of it seems pretty danged obvious once I think about it. For example, at one point the girl, Rosaleen, climbs a tree in the forest and finds a nest full of eggs and also one mirror. She looks in the mirror in a preening way, and then the eggs crack open to reveal tiny human baby figures. I don't entirely understand the mirror, although it resonates with the Snow White story and the vain question of who's the fairest of them all, but the eggs and baby figures seem to represent her new fertility. This makes even more sense when you realize that the adult bird she chases off when she finds the nest is a stork. Later she shows one of the baby figures to her mother, who looks very pleased and proud. Is this where babies come from?

( Happy and bleeding for you ... )