Sípová Ruzenka (1990)

The impatient King Leopold waits, and his court waits with him. The Queen gives birth to the long-awaited child. But will it be a boy, a young Leopold, the desired heir to the throne? The Queen is plagued by confused dreams: veils float down from a tower—a toad prophesies, “You have waited a long time, Queen; you will give birth to a child.”—The young Queen runs through a tunnel of roses, a rose bower, toward her husband. In the rosy light, he hurries toward her with a bouquet of red roses, but when he tries to hand her the flowers, the bouquet has wilted. Queen Christine has given birth to a beautiful girl. Somewhat bewildered, the King showers the child with affection. But the little girl is not to be named Leopoldine after her father. The Queen says that the child sleeps like a thorn rose and should be called Sleeping Beauty, after her favorite flower. The insecure King, eager to assert his importance, is pressed by his Minister’s insinuations: the courtier wants to increase his wealth and mint coins. Leopoldine coins—earned through flax cultivation and spinning rooms—are supposed to secure a future for the weak king’s name. The slight disappointment at not having a male heir is compensated for with excessive pomp. The King demands that all thirteen fairies in the land be invited to the christening of his little daughter. Everyone agrees that this is madness and arrogance—normally, only three fairies come to the cradle of a newborn. But the King is undeterred and orders thirteen gold plates to be made for the fairies. When the last plate is being made, however, the gold runs out, and the Minister advises disinviting the thirteenth fairy. The Thirteenth is “only” in charge of fate anyway, and would not bestow gifts like the other twelve. Carelessly and easily swayed, Leopold agrees to disinvite the fairy of fate. Meanwhile, Leopold’s messengers travel the land in search of fairies. Laden with gifts, they find the mysterious fairies beneath the Tree of Life. The fairies are delighted to bestow the great gift of their blessings upon the princess—but then news arrives that the thirteenth fairy has been disinvited. The fairy of fate issues a warning. Royal guests are invited to the christening, including the neighboring King Philipp and his many children, among them the little Prince Wilhelm. In the eyes of the arrogant Leopold, this king is a nobody—his son must never become Sleeping Beauty’s bridegroom. The Minister applauds this insolence. The assembled company waits impatiently. At last, the fairies appear. The princess is blessed with enchanting beauty, intelligence, health, wealth, generosity, courage, love of truth, kindness, imagination, patience, and talent. The twelfth fairy lays a rose in the child’s cradle: when the rose blooms, love will enter Sleeping Beauty’s life. Arrogant and unconsciously jealous as a father, the self-satisfied Leopold objects—the child might prick herself on the rose. Then the thirteenth fairy appears. She prophesies a dark fate for the child. Sleeping Beauty’s rose of love will not bloom; instead, she will wither along with the rose. By Leopold’s will, she will not marry Prince Wilhelm. When she is fifteen, Leopold’s daughter will prick herself on a spindle and close her eyes forever. Great commotion follows the curse, and the fairies disappear. But then the twelfth fairy, the rose of love, appears once more in the light. She cannot undo the curse either, but can only soften it, prophesying to the child: “You will not die, Princess Sleeping Beauty, if my gift of love brings your rescuer to you after a hundred years.” Fear grips the kingdom. The King wants to protect his child. Sleeping Beauty must hear nothing of the curse; she must not prick herself on anything or come near any danger. All the roses are torn out of the royal garden, and spinning wheels are inspected. But when the King also wants to ban spinning throughout the land, the Minister fears for his profits. Flax continues to be processed into linen in the country, but every spinning wheel in the castle is burned. Nothing from the outside is therefore allowed to enter the castle. Sleeping Beauty grows up in complete isolation. All subjects between the ages of seventeen and fifty-seven are banished from the castle—with the exception of the scheming Minister. This is not the flourishing land the King had dreamed of for his child, but he presses on, summoning a spinner named Maria to the castle so that at least one person will know about the dangerous spinning wheels and be able to say where the distaff and spindle are. Cheerful Maria can interpret dreams. She becomes the closest confidante of the beautiful fourteen-year-old princess. The elderly ladies-in-waiting and the castle’s orderly quiet make Sleeping Beauty sad. The beautiful girl, held captive and denied all life, has many questions. Sleeping Beauty nurses a dove back to health after finding it with a broken wing. Maria helps, but the bird must remain free; it must be able to fly. But what does freedom mean to the imprisoned princess—an undefined longing? She is watched constantly. The King and Queen tour their land. There they hear people mocking Sleeping Beauty: Is the hidden princess, invisible to the people, really so beautiful? Enraged, the King decides to have his daughter’s portrait painted. Queen Christine has sent King Philipp a portrait of Sleeping Beauty for his son and invited Prince Wilhelm. The Queen hopes marriage will be a way to counter the curse. The handsome prince sets out. The twelfth rose fairy also hopes for love—love is the only thing that can change a person’s fate. But her thirteenth sister, the fairy of fate, scoffs in disbelief: “What people are even capable of love? It is usually nothing but selfishness.” Meanwhile, Sleeping Beauty has persuaded her parents to take her with them once. At the King’s insistence, their route passes through barren wilderness. Their carriage gets stuck in the mud. Sleeping Beauty gets out and loses her way in the forest. At a wild waterfall, she finds Prince Wilhelm. They are both enchanted by each other. But soon her anxious parents have Sleeping Beauty back in their care. Prince Wilhelm follows and stays as a guest at the castle, where, to the King’s annoyance, Wilhelm and the princess fall in love. But they also disagree: Sleeping Beauty defends her parents, whom the prince believes suffer from persecution mania. The beautiful princess angrily rejects his suggestion that they run away. When they make up, they ride wildly through the castle garden, and the delicate princess falls. The King and Queen, unusually united this time, angrily drive Prince Wilhelm away. Following the false Minister’s insinuations, the fear-ridden King has taken every joy from Sleeping Beauty. Prince Wilhelm is banished from the court; Maria, the princess’s confidante, has to leave too; and even the young lovers Margit and Michael, who are among the servants, are separated against Sleeping Beauty’s wishes. The princess then helps Margit escape. But she herself cannot bring herself to leave her parents and flee the court. Events come to a head. They send for Prince Wilhelm. But then the fairy of fate appears and lures the girl into the tower, where she tells her to spin. What must happen does happen: Sleeping Beauty pricks her finger and falls into a deep sleep, and the entire court falls asleep with her. The beautiful girl is wrapped in glittering threads; an impenetrable thicket of roses grows over her and the castle, including all its outbuildings. When King Philipp arrives with his son, Prince Wilhelm, everything is surrounded by enchanted roses that allow no one to enter. Death lurks in the hedge. Prince Wilhelm is pressured into an unhappy, forced marriage. Decades pass. Wilhelm has become an old man, the great-grandfather of Prince Johann. He can no longer even play the lute. Johann is the spitting image of the young Wilhelm. By the rose hedge, the children sing the circle game about the sleeping king’s daughter: “Sleeping Beauty was a beautiful child …” Longing for the sleeping Sleeping Beauty takes hold of the dreamy Johann. He can cross the hedge unharmed, despite his great-grandfather’s attempts to stop him. Like a sleepwalker, the prince finds Sleeping Beauty asleep after a hundred years, wakes her with a kiss, and, with the blessing of the twelfth rose fairy, receives from King Leopold his daughter’s hand and the crown of the kingdom.