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Genres, and Media. 1 As Wolfgang Mieder Has Observed, I

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Genres, and Media. 1 As Wolfgang Mieder Has Observed, I II 16. "Is SeeingBelieving?" (Haase) - DONALD P. HAASE IS SEEING BELIEVING? PROVERBS AND THE Fll..M ADAPTATION OF A F.AIRY TALE I For several decadesnow, a growing number of interdisciplinary studies have investigated the use of the proverb in diverse contexts, genres, and media.1 As Wolfgang Mieder has observed, paremiologists have begun to move beyond mere historical studies of the proverb in traditional societies and folk fonDS, and "have become aware of the use and function of traditional proverbs in modem technological and sophisticated societies" ("Proverb in the Modem Age" 118). As a consequence,paremiology has beenenriched not only by studiesd1at investigate proverbs in traditional folk genres, such as the folk and fairy tale, but by "important studies of proverbs in modem literature, in psychologicaltesting, and in the various forms of massmedia such as newspapers,magazines, and advertisements" ( 118). One of the media in our technological society that has not been given much attention by paremiologists, however, is fllm.1 Perhaps this neglect is due to the medium's essentially visual technology, in which pictures speaklouder than words, which are, on the other hand, the essenceof the proverb. But the primary verbal nature of the prov- erb has not obscured the fact that it often has an implicit image con- tent as well, nor has it kept paremiologists from investigating the proverb's use in paintings. emblems, and other visual media such as advertisements.Moreover ~ as long as films contain spoken words imitating the speechof life, it is likely that proverbs will be present in cinema too. In what follows. I undertake a stUdyof proverbs as they are used in The Company of Wolves. a cinematic adaptation of the fairy tale "Little Red Riding Hood." Because folk and fairy tales are rich in proverbiallanguage,3 it seems natural to take a film adaptation of PROVERBIUM 7 (1990) 90 DONALD P. HAASE this traditional genre as an initial case study of proverbs in cinema. But in this connection, the question that arises is not only how prov- erbs might function in cinema, but how a traditionally oral genre whose proverbial language is intended for the credulous ear merges with a visual technology that "speaks" primarily to the sophisticated eyes of the twentieth-century viewer. n When it comes to the fairy tale, seeing is not necessarily believ- ing. The fairy tale's unquestioned presentation of a magical realm, which many have considered one of the genre's essential traits,4 is certainly enhancedby the non-visual nature of the originally spoken genre. The suspension of disbelief in which the listener or reader of a fairy tale engagesis triggered by the fonnula "once upon a time" and by the imaginative license given to the mind's eye. The one- dimensionality, the depthlessness,and the abstract style of the fairy tale (Luthi 4-36) do not require the auditor or reader to envision a specific reality, and thereby they encourage imaginative belief in an unreal world. In the fairy tale, then, not seeing is believing. Different conditions apply to the fairy tale movie and its viewers. Indeed, one of the great strengths of the fIlm as a visual medium- its realism - is the very characteristic that distinguishes it so sharply from the fairy tale. The concrete detail and specific representations that a film necessarily provides (especially the live action fIlm) are the very things that are necessarily lacking in the traditional fairy tale. It becomesthe ti1mmaker'stask to suspendthe viewer's disbelief in the magical by creating compelling visual images. For the viewer of fairy tale cinema, then, seeing is believing. Of course, the filmmaker may want to break the "magic spell" of the fairy tale by exploiting the tension between the visual realism of the film and the abstract nature of the Mitrchen -literally, to il- luminate critically the fairy tale.s connection to the superstition of the "dark ages." This is precisely the technique of Angela Carter and Neil Jordan'scinematic fairy tale adaptation, The Companya/Wolves (1984). Based on Angela Carter's literary adaptation by the same name, the live action film radically alters the traditional tale of "Lit- tle Red Riding Hood" by presenting it as the dream of a contem- porary adolescentgirl. Embedded within this dream itself are addi- tional tales of wolves and werewolves told by Rosaleen (the Red Riding Hood character) and her grandmother. These narrative layers (reality. dream. tales within a dream) disenchant the traditional tale PROVERBS AND FILM 91 by "disappointing" and challenging the viewer's conventional expec- tations. And as a result the viewer is compelled to reconsider the conventional meaning or wisdom of the "Red Riding Hood" story. 5 While this re-vision of the tale is effected in part by the fIlm's visual redefinition of traditional faiIY tale images,the film also engages in verbal subversionby undennining conventionalfairy tale language. My focus in this essay is on the film's use of proverbs as a means of questioning the popular wisdom of the fairy tale. As a number of paremiologists have demonstrated, the proverb is a significant stylistic trait of the folktale.6 And in his study of the proverb in the works of the Brothers Grimm, Wolfgang Mieder has shown how Wilhelm Grimm incorporated proverbial language into the Kinder- und Hausmitrchen so as to recreatethe traditional style of the stories.7 Believing, as he did, that proverbs embodied Popularphilosophie, Wilhelm was simultaneously (re)introducing into the tales both the voice and the "philosophy"-beliefs, attitudes, and values-of the folk (Mieder, "'Finder,so werder ihr suchen!W60-62). By using proverbs . in The Companyo/Wolves, Carter and Jordanare in one sensefollow- I ing Wilhelm Grimm's example-that is, attempting to suggest the i language and atmosphereof the fairy tale. Yet, in a more important sense they employ proverbs not to indulge in the conventional language of the fairy tale but rather to demystify its proverbial language and the conventional wisdom that it expounds.8 The proverbial languageof the fIlm does not occur in the realistic frame story, which has a contemporary setting, but rather within the the young girl's dream and itS interpolated tales. Although the dream settings are appropriately surreal, they depict a largely feudal soci- ety and are populated with mostly peasantcharacters whose speech is"accordingly proverbial. Rosaleen'sGranny. in panicular, is a foun- tain of proverbial speechwho observes that men are ''as nice as pie until they've had their way with you," that "all went right as a trivet," and that the village priest is "deaf as a post.,. While such expressionson the one handecho the languageof ttadi- tional Mdrchen, we must keep in mind that the characters who use them in this film are not at all conventional. After all. as figures in a nightmare, they are actually the projections of the young dreamer's subconscious. Why, then. would they make use of folksy, prover- bial speech?Given that the majority of the proverbs and proverbial expressions uttered in the film come from the mouths of Rosaleen's Granny, who is her maternal mentor. and her father, we can speculate that the young girl identifies these authority figures with proverbial ~ 92 DONALD P. HAASE speech.In other words, in her dream the young girl identifies authority and wisdom with the popular wisdom of the proverb. And, in fact, the world reflected in her dream is one that seemsto be based on the authority of popular beliefs, a world in which Granny's superstitious warning tale of a boy and the devJ.j begins with "They say. " and concludes with "It's the God's own truth." As the voice of popular wisdom, the grandmother becomes Rosaleen'smentor, whose speechis proverbially sententious:"You've got a lot to learn child. Never stray from thepath, never eat a wind- fall apple, and never trust a man whose eyebrows meet." The stories that the grandmothertells to Rosaleenare tales of devils, werewolves, and superstition. They are at once warning tales and stories of sex- ual initiation that are part of Rosaleen'srite of passageinto adulthood. As Wammiirchen Granny's stories caution Rosaleenagainst the wolf who "may be more than he seems," the kind of wolf who is "hairy on the inside"; and her mistrust of men and sexuality is taught to Rosaleen as superstition that is confinned by popular belief: "They say the priest's bastards often turn into wolves as they grow older" (emphasis added). Not only does the grandmother use proverbs and cite popular wisdom to narrate her stories, but even the characters in her tales are endowed with proverbial speech. Yet when Granny's characters employ proverbial language, irony ensues. In the story of a travel- ling man who disappears on his wedding night, the peasant search party reports that it has found "not a hair nor a hide of him." The peasant'scasual use of the proverbial expressionis proven to be ironic when it turns out that the travelling man is in fact a werewolf. And in the grandmother'ssuperstitious tale of the boy who receivesa magic ointment from the devil, even the Prince of Darkness himself moralizes proverbially: "Now use it wisely. Waste not, want not." Such irony signals us-and perhapsRosaleen, too-that proverbs and popular wisdom might not be all that they seem. This is certainly the view of Rosaleen'smother, who accusesher daughter of being "besotted with that old lady and her old wives' tales." Rosaleen.smother, in fact, seeks to demystify the superstitious beliefs Granny has passedon to Rosaleen, especially as regards sex- uality. When Rosaleentells her mother what Granny has said about the bestial nature of men, her mother cautions that the grandmother "knows a lot, but she doesn't know everything.
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