The Princess and the Shepherd. A Fairytale [Films in Progress]

Lassnig’s parable film narrates her version of a classical European fairy tale, examining the gendered tropes thatpopulate them, in particular the cliche of sequestered damsels in distress awaiting male saviors. In voiceover, the artist introduces a lonely princess isolated in an opulent mountaintop castle. Lassnig describes her as “very proud and very beautiful,” but also as melancholy, “crying a lot out of capriciousness,” weeping so profusely that she collects her tears in a jar. The depressed princess dances aimlessly wearing a virginal or bridal white dress and flowered crown, which hints at the story’s marriage plot, the princess’s conundrum to choose among a series of suitors. Once the wave of suitors commence, Lassnig takes the opportunity to lampoon different male caricatures. (Jocelyn Miller, Maria Lassnig. Film Works/ Filmography [excerpt])

Rough cut by Maria Lassnig. Color correction and final cut completed posthumously in accordance with Lassnig’s original editing concept by Mara Mattuschka and Hans Werner Poschauko.
Soundtrack Johann Joseph Fux, Serenade in C major; Tomaso Albinoni, Adagio in G minor; Joseph Haydn, Concerto No. 1 for Flute, Oboe, and Orchestra in C major, Hob VIIh: 1

Digitization by the Austrian Film Museum. This film was preserved and restored by the Maria Lassnig Foundation in collaboration with the Austrian Film Museum.