Not so happily ever after . . .
Dina Goldstein, 'Snowy'. Click to enlarge
I wonder if I was the only one who found the first half of The Incredibles incredibly distressing. It may just be that I found myself identifying a little too much with Mr Incredble’s expanding waistline, but the sequences in which he and his wife struggle to come to terms with their life in suburbia seemed pretty close to the bone for something that is supposed to be a kid’s movie.
Anyway – what happens after happily ever after is a rich theme, and one explored to great effect in this wonderful series of images by artist Dina Goldstein. The images:
“place Fairy Tale characters in modern day scenarios. In all of the images the Princess is placed in an environment that articulates her conflict. The ‘. . . happily ever after’ is replaced with a realistic outcome and addresses current issues”.
Goldstein might have been thinking about one of my favourite Ondaatje poems, ‘Late Movies with Skyler’, which ends:
“In the movies of my childhood the heroes
after skilled swordplay and moral victories
leave with absolutely nothing
to do for the rest of their lives”.
Break text
city of tongues 
It is funny you mention that identification with The Incredibles. I’ve had that same sense of identification for similar reason with (shamefully enough) Desperate Housewives this year and Gabby’s character. Even when one was never a runway model to begin, and even when you are mature enough to not hang your self esteem on your own appearance, that sense of feeling you have lost something, of noticing that you are no longer noticed in the way you once were, is something which is not without its own particular grief. Anyway, thinking I now have to go and write the piece on Desperate Housewives that has been slopping around in the back of my head..
And I love the photos – especially Snow White. Thanks for sharing.