Open Access

Joëlle Légeret

• Contemporary studies about film adaptations of literary texts face many obstacles when it comes to compare two different media. They either tend to establish how faithful the film adaptation is to its textual source or they consider the literary text as canonical, which as such cannot be transposed to any other form. This contribution aims to cross the borders of 'adaptation studies' and offers an intermedial comparison between the Grimms' tale 'Sneewittchen', first published in 1812, and 'Blancanieves', a black and white silent movie directed by Pablo Berger and released in 2012. Regarding 'Blancanieves' not only as an adaptation of the Grimms' text(s), but also and above all as a reconfiguration of numerous media forms (film, photography, opera, among others), reveals how the Spanish director differentiates himself from the German tale and creates a new story with renewed meanings which echo the current social, economical and political situation of Spain.