FOLKLORE IN FILM
Ellen Quinn
COM 329: Contemporary Film
Dr. Neuendorf
12/2/14
WHAT IS FOLKLORE
 Although the word folklore is more than a century old, no exact
agreement has ever been reached as to its meaning. The common
idea present in all folklore …involves the dances, songs, tales, legends,
and traditions, the beliefs and superstitions, and the proverbial sayings
of peoples everywhere.
-Stith Thompson in Funk & Wagnalls Standard Dictionary of Folklore, Mythology and Legend (v. 1 p. 403)
FOLKLORE STUDIES
 aka folkloristics
 Looks at popular film from several perspectives
• Ethnographic documentary as evidence of folk ways
• Use film for study in the field – data collection
• In analysis of popular cinema – aka motif spotting
Film, Folklore and Urban Legends by Mikel J. Koven (Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2008), chapter 1.
ACADEMIC ANALYSIS
MOTIF SPOTTING
 “Motif spotting” is the most common type of folkloristic analysis of
contemporary fiction cinema
 Motif-Index of Folk-Literature: A Classification of Narrative Elements in
Folktales, Ballads, Myths, Fables, Mediaeval Romances, Exempla, Fabiliaux,
Jest-Books, and Local Legends by Stith Thomas
 Vague map of traditional storytelling
- From Koven 2008 book p. 49 & 2003 article p. 190.
EXAMPLE
 Motif: arm emerging from grave
 Grimm’s Brothers – The Wilful Child
•
•
•
•
Friday 13th
Carrie
Deliverance
The Evil Dead
- From Koven 2003 article p. 183.
BORGMAN (2013)
 Motifs
• Fatal deception
• Deceptions connected with
adultery
• Night spirits/dream demon
• Tricksters
• Forest dwellers
• Incubus
• Based on Alp – nightmare
creature of German
folklore
FA K E L O R E
 Pop culture use of folklore often excessive and out of context
 Folklore used as an important part of plot or theme
- From chpt. by Sharon Sherman in 2008 Koven book, p. 513
MÄRCHEN
A folktale characterized by elements of magic or the
supernatural, such as the endowment of a mortal character with
magical powers or special knowledge; variations expose the
hero to supernatural beings or objects. The German term
Märchen, used universally by folklorists, also embraces tall
tales and humorous anecdotes; although it is often translated
as “fairy tale,” the fairy is not a requisite motif.
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/364221/Marchen
DISNEY & ANIMATION
 Renowned folklorist Stith
Thomas considered the animated
cartoon as “the most successful
of all mediums for the
presentation of the fairy tale.”
 Others considered Disney film
version of fairy tales to be a
“debasement of the traditional
literature of childhood.”
-From Koven 2003 article p. 177
ADULT ORIENTED FILMS
BASED ON FAIRY TALES
 Jean Cocteau, Le belle et la
bete (1946) – references horror
films of the 1930s
 Based on well known folktale
 Snow White a Tale of Terror
(1997)
 The Red Shoes (1948)
 Black Swan (2010)
 Snow White and the Huntsman
(2012)
 Freeway (1996) story of Little
Red Riding Hood
From 2003 Koven article p. 183
F O L K L O R I S T S S T U DY I N G
FOLKLORE
 Candyman (1992)
• Folklorist investigates
murders in housing project
supposedly committed by
legendary hook handed
killer
• urban legend: hook
handed killer + Mary
Worth ritual
• Beauty and the Beast story
elements
 The Serpent and the Rainbow
(1988) Wes Craven
 Loosely based on true story of
anthropologist investigating rumors
of zombies in Haiti
PAN’S LABYRINTH (2006)
 Dark fairy tale motifs
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Fairies
Faun
Pale man (ogre)
Mandrake root
Heroine given 3 tasks
Disobedient heroine
Fairy tale princess
Evil stepfather (variation on evil stepmother)
- From Fairy Tale Films (2010) chpt. 3
LITTLE OTIK (2000)
 Tale Types
•
the artificial child
• curse of childlessness
 Based on Czek fairy tale /Otesánek
• Hair eating scene
THE WICKER MAN (1973)
 Descriptions of early British
human sacrifice based on false
accounts by Julius Caesar (as
described in The Golden Bough
(Frazer p. 653)
 Trailer
(About tale-types and motifs in zombie films)
"Returning momentarily to the problematic
nature of popular filmmakers ransacking folklore
(poorly) and not doing proper folkloristic
research into the narrative traditions means that
concepts like "corpse froth" do not get included
in zombie films. Often filmmakers doing proper
folklore research into the themes of their films
not only ensures accuracy and verisimilitude with
narrative traditions but also reveals some really
wonderfully repulsive images that are much
better than most horror script and story writers
can conjure themselves. The folk have been
grossing each other out for centuries."
- From Koven 2008 book pp. 43-4
REFERENCES

Mikel J. Koven, Folklore Studies and Popular Film and Television: A Necessary Critical Survey, 116 Journal of
American Folklore (460) Spring 2003 pp. 176-195.

Mikel J. Koven, Film/folklore academic; senior lecturer and course leader of Film Studies at the University of
Worcester Academic web page and Twitter

Märchen in Encyclopedia Brittanica.

Film, Folklore and Urban Legends by Mikel J. Koven (Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2008).

Fairy Tale Films: Visions of Ambiguity, Pauline Greenhill and Sidney Eve Matrix, eds. (Logan, UT: Utah State
University Press, 2010).

Folklore/Cinema, Sharon R. Sherman and Mikel J. Koven, eds. (Logan, UT: Utah State University Press, 2007).

Sharon Sherman, Folklorist and independent filmmaker; Use of film by folklorists similar to development of
documentary film; Academic web page

Dr. Mary Magoulick. Academic web page and FOLKLORE FILMS from class on Myth, Magic & the Modern World.
 Structuralism and Folklore in The Meaning of Folklore: The Analytical Essays
of Alan Dundes pp. 126-153 (Logan, UT: Utah State University Press, 2007).
 Morphology of the Folktale (1927) by V. Propp (Austin: University of Texas
Press, 1968.
 The Golden Bough, A Study in Magic and Religion by J.G. Frazer (London:
Papermac 1987).
 The Complete Grimm’s Fairy Tales (NY: Pantheon Books, 1972).
 Funk & Wagnalls Standard Dictionary of Folklore, Mythology and Legend.
1949-[50] 2 v.
 The Greenwood Encyclopedia of World Folklore and Folklife 4 v. Westport, CT:
Greenwood Press (2006).
 Grimm brothers’ fairytales have blood and horror restored in new translation. ‘It is time for
parents and publishers to stop dumbing down the tales for children,’ says editor of uncut
edition by Alison Flood, The Guardian, 12 November 2014.
 Motif-index of folk-literature; a classification of narrative elements in folktales, ballads,
myths, fables, mediaeval romances, exempla, fabliaux, jest-books, and local legends by Stith
Thompson. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1955-1958.
 The Types of Internatonal Folktales, A Classification and Bibliography Based on the System
of Antti Aarne and Stith Thompson by Hans-Jorg Uther, Helsinki, 2011.
 Fatal Attraction and the Attraction of Fables: A Morphological Analysis by Jim Hala. 92 J.
Popular Culture 71 (1992).
fin