Review: Cruella – punk Disney

Director: Craig Gillespie

Writers: Dana Fox (screenplay by), Tony McNamara (screenplay by), Aline Brosh McKenna (story by)

Stars: Emma Stone, Emma Thompson, Joel Fry, Paul Walter Hauser      

No other villain created by Disney Studios is as hated as Cruella De Ville of 101 Dalmatians. And how can it not be when she has a sadistic desire to make a coat out of dog fur. The fear she evokes with her appearance is greater because she, although a fictional character, is not a typical antagonist of fairy tales: Cruella De Vil is a picture of evil that is real and close to us.

Cruella, the latest in a series of Disney feature films based on the most popular animated films, follows the events that precede her metamorphosis - from a poor orphan and a promising fashion designer to an insanely rich woman. Cruella was simply born to be evil. Set in London in the 1970s, during the most prolific period of the punk era, Cruella is the story of Estella (Emma Stone) who, together with her childhood friends, is involved in petty theft and has ambitions to become the chief designer at Liberty fashion house led by the dark Baroness von Hellmann (Emma Thompson), an icon of the London fashion scene.

It is no coincidence that the seventies and punk aesthetics were chosen: in that context addresses the neglected youth of the lumpenproletariat. Punk is created by the obsession with class and the importance of undermining the intellectual posture of the previous generation. In fashion and music, above all, there is alienation, rage and this produces a series of correlations for the official archetypes of the crisis of modern life such as unemployment, violence, and depression. That crisis is the cause of a double life, fictitious yet real.

Estella belongs to that anonymous mob left on the sidelines which only produces anger. Guided by her personal desire for success, but also revenge for the tragic events of her childhood, she stands against the old, against the establishment, whose image is the Baroness. The stylistic transition is without doubt her metamorphosis into  Cruella.

Cruella is a visually lavish film and the costume design is what drives the narrative. It is obvious that Vivienne Westwood as an icon of the punk movement, and the whole subculture, are the inspiration for the appearance of the main character. For most of the film, Estella is tied to a specific location – The King’s Road, the street that is the main point where London fashion is dictated, from punk, rock, hippie, disco and fashion; from Westwood and Malcolm McLaren to Mary Quant. The music is carefully chosen - The Clash, Blondie, The Stooges, The Stones, Black Sabbath, but also The Bee Gees, Nancy Sinatra, Nina Simone, while the main theme is the work of the indie-rock band Florence and the Machine...

In one of the strongest scenes, Cruella arrives at a fashion show with the caption "The Future" across her face, and the font is taken from Sex Pistols' album Never Mind the Bollocks.

Cruella is definitely not a children’s movie. This time Disney was a little bolder in their choice of screenwriters and the whole concept, and what is most important for such films, it is very fun.