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Sleeping Beauty

Australia

2011

101 Min
Color
1.85:1
English
  • Currently 2.9/5 Stars.
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DIR Julia Leigh

EXEC Jamie Hilton, Timothy White, Jane Campion

PROD Jessica Brentnall

SCR Julia Leigh

DP Geoffrey Simpson

CAST Emily Browning, Rachael Blake, Ewen Leslie, Peter Carroll, Chris Haywood, Michael Dorman, Mirrah Foulkes, Hugh Keays-Byrne, Joel Tobeck, Henry Nixon

ED Nick Meyers

PROD DES Annie Beauchamp

MUSIC Ben Frost

SOUND Sam Petty

Cannes (In Competition), Toronto (Special Presentations), Vancouver (Cinema of Our Time), Helsinki (Spotlight), Chicago (World Cinema), Stockholm (Competition)

Synopsis

“You will go to sleep: you will wake up. It will be as if those hours never existed.”

Death-haunted, quietly reckless, Lucy is a young university student who takes a job as a Sleeping Beauty. In the Sleeping Beauty Chamber old men seek an erotic experience that requires Lucy’s absolute submission. This unsettling task starts to bleed into Lucy’s daily life and she develops an increasing need to know what happens to her when she is asleep. –Official Synopsis

Director

Original

Julia Leigh

Julia Leigh (born in 1970 in Sydney, Australia) is an Australian novelist, film director and screenwriter.
She received prizes and nominations for her novels The Hunter and Disquiet. The Hunter was adapted into a 2011 feature film starring Willem Dafoe, Sam Neill and Frances O’Connor. Leigh also wrote the screenplay Sleeping Beauty about a university student drawn into a mysterious world of desire. Leigh made her directorial debut with this screenplay in 2011 Sleeping Beauty starring Emily Browning. Her film was selected for the main competition at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival. –Wikipedia 

Wall

Displaying 4 of 81 wall posts.
Picture of Mark Garrett

Mark Garrett

28May12

Great set-up which makes the ending all the worse, squandering a specifically constructed world and individual by using a dumb-as-fuck climax.

Picture of Jason Callen

Jason Callen

12May12

Started out intriguing but ends up a mess. Browning is quite good though, for what she's been given to work with. If anyone can explain the ending, I'd love to hear it.

soiwaswrong likes this

Picture of Monsieur Arkadin

Monsieur Arkadin

7May12

I really felt like I should like this, and I did...in a way. I liked its mysterious nature and the very sterile mood, but overall there's not much of value here. It's an interesting work aesthetically, nothing more.

gea* likes this

Picture of hakaima sadamitsu

hakaima sadamitsu

7May12

I think I get the message, but i don't really know if it was worth the 100 minutes.

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Fans

Displaying 5 of 311 fans.

Articles

Our roundup of essays and articles on this film.
W184

In Defense of Julia Leigh's "Sleeping Beauty"

By Dan Sallitt on January 16, 2012

An appreciative stylistic analysis of director-writer Julia Leigh’s controversial debut feature.

read article
W184

Julia Leigh's "Sleeping Beauty"

By David Hudson on December 15, 2011

The second round of reviews of Steve McQueen’s Shame was more sobering than the first. Same here.

read article
W184

Movie Poster of the Week: The posters of the 2011 Cannes Competition

By Adrian Curry on May 20, 2011

The end of the world will be beautiful, or so says the Polish poster for Lars von Trier’s Melancholia, quite fittingly on the eve of

read article
W184

Cannes 2011. Julia Leigh's "Sleeping Beauty"

By David Hudson on May 12, 2011

Updated through 5/18. "'Your vagina will not be penetrated. Your vagina is a temple.' With these words, Sleeping Beauty establishes the ground

read article
W184

Cannes 2011. The Trailers So Far

By David Hudson on April 28, 2011

Updated through 5/11. Along with the trailer for Hong Sang-soo's The Day He Arrives, another's just appeared for Kim Ki-duk's Arirang. Both

read article

Sitges 2011: SLEEPING BEAUTY Review

By Twitchfilm.com on October 13, 2011
It’s hard at first to know exactly what to make of author Julia Leigh’s directorial debut Sleeping Beauty. It is both a narrative fiction and a surreal dream/nightmare. It is as indebted to European filmmaking
read on Twitchfilm.com

New Trailer For Julia Leigh's SLEEPING BEAUTY Is Here

By Twitchfilm.com on October 12, 2011
Julia Leigh’s Sleeping Beauty premiered at Cannes and has been picked up for US distribution by IFC films, who bring us this first US trailer for the film.  Sleeping Beauty is about a special kind of call
read on Twitchfilm.com

Cannes 2011: SLEEPING BEAUTY Will Be Coming to UK

By Twitchfilm.com on May 19, 2011
Premiering in the Cannes competition over the weekend to mixed critical reception, the sexual dynamics of Julia Leigh’s Sleeping Beauty nonetheless earned the film US distribution via Sundance Selects
read on Twitchfilm.com

Cannes 2011: SUCKER PUNCH's Emily Browning Stars In Psycho-Sexual Thriller SLEEPING BEAUTY

By Twitchfilm.com on April 29, 2011
Lemony Snicket’s Emily Browning is all grown up. And while Zack Snyder glammed up that fact in Sucker Punch, first time director Julia Leigh is playing male fantasy to a much darker end with her Cannes
read on Twitchfilm.com

Lists

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Reviews

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Disappointing

By MR. Univers​e on December 14, 2011

A character study, Where the character we are supposed to be interested in and follow to learn more about. Is incredibly dull. Don’t get me wrong Emily Browning gives a brave performance and is an…  read review

Forum

Displaying 4 discussion topics.

A Modern Day Fairy Tale

13 posts by 5 people 8 days ago

Any possible way to watch Sleeping Beauty (2011)

3 posts by 3 people 5 months ago

Julia Leigh on SLEEPING BEAUTY (Podcast)

3 posts by 3 people 6 months ago

NC-17? Name Change?

13 posts by 6 people about 1 year ago