There is a sinister and tragic element that underlines popular fairy tales. Elements of the fantastic become interspersed with anxieties and desires revolving around identification. At the core of many of Hans Christian Anderson's reinterpretations of various folk tales was an aura of melancholy surrounding the personal sacrifices made for the sake of dreams. Stories such as "The Little Mermaid" become all too familiar as the macro tensions of social expectations and cultural roles obstruct the dreams of the individual. The fantasy becomes all the more cruel and heartrending as individual hopes and goals prove to be unattainable.

Director Catherine Breillat reconstructs these elements of the fairy tale by emphasizing the necessity of consistently shifting identities. The Sleeping Beauty (2010) incorporates elements of satire, horror, and pornography to reassess the dormant protagonist of Charles Perrault's classic story. Unlike Julia Leigh's film of the same name, Breillat is less interested in a distanced clinical examination that reaffirms and lingers on elements of rape and necrophilia permeating the tale (in earlier Italian variants, a king rapes the sleeping princess and abandons her, and only after birthing several children does beauty eventually awake). Instead, much of the film centers on the internalized desires of tomboy Anastasia (based loosely off of tsarina Anastasia, considered a tomboy in her day). Her dream becomes a quest utilizing elements of Anderson's "The Snow Queen" to save her brother, yet this heroic journey is disrupted by the inevitable kiss. The film deemphasizes the curse of sleep as Anastasia looks forward to her fantasy adventure and the ability to skip through adolescence. Her awakening is even less dramatic as Breillat makes no separation from the waking world, fantasy, and the passing of time. Instead, Breillat centers on the need for reformulating desires."Prince Charming" proves to be an irresolute teenager that eventually leaves Anastasia pregnant. Anastasia is forced to negotiate between her desires and external heteronormative pressures. By updating the provincial nature of the tale, The Sleeping Beauty suggests that the failure of dreams to contend with reality is not tragic, but inevitable.