Bluebeard in a Nutshell

Abstract

In order to illustrate the development of the Bluebeard plot I will focus on a cinematic transformation that unites narrative, semantic as well as aesthetic aspects of the traditional tale and many of its re-workings. A dialogue of meanings, interpretations and representations makes The Silence of the Lambs a highly complex amalgamation of Bluebeard’s cultural history. At the same time the film serves as a reinterpretation and revision of the familiar story. By introducing references on the one hand, and modifications and modernizations on the other, I will show that Jonathan Demme’s Bluebeard transformation takes core elements of the tale and puts them onto another level. The film combines two variations of the story - La Barbe Bleue and The Robber Bridegroom - but it also incorporates the Gothic, the psychological thriller, and the horror film. Thereby, The Silenceof the Lambs brings together genres that have established and developed a certain kind of aesthetics which has its roots in the Bluebeard tale and is carried on by the Sublime and Beautiful of the Gothic as well as the suspense of the thriller. I will close my analysis by illustrating how the quest for meaning, already inherent in the popular tales, continues in transformations such as The Silence of the Lambs - helping to explain the plot’s ongoing transmedial reproduction as well as its lasting presence and fascination.