In a nutshell. Her parents colluded in a nasty little deal with aristocrats, (we learn this right at the very end. 'This is a tradition your parents began.') Possibly to enhance and to ensure their large millinery, with it's fancy hats for the elite, would never go broke... we must remember that old Europe was all about 2 classes and that was rich and slaves/servants.
The hat store burned down, killing the parents and she was sent away at two.
On later finding her long-lost brother. I realised, after the film was over, that perhaps, with his penchant for ethics and dare I say it, treating people as human beings, it may very well have been him who designed that situation. Three quarter way through the film, he pretty much says as much. '...burn that shop down and end this forever.' His group of rebels are seen as only that and here, the brilliance of showing how, even back then, the media is manipulated to only show the 'truths' they want people to hear.
So in the way of vampirical aristocracy, and so rife in the day, and throughout history, this is basically a story about the abuse and theft of the lives of innocents. Mainly women, seen here so clearly as the 'sacrifice', the 'chosen one' to be abominated by those with power - very powerful men.
Clearly shown, no matter what the class, women never did fare well at the hands of men - whether it is the marauding men who revolt at the upper class, potentially to do 'the right thing' and yet, in their wake, leaving such rape and pillage that we see they have no control over their base natures. Or the elite, those craven filthy aristocrats who take what they want, create wars and rape and pillage but 'dress it up a little as if it's a beautiful thing they do', and therein, my take on this, is the sacrifice of the beautiful, sweet and tender women, sent to deliver 'hats' to ostensibly be used for royalty, with the promise of a better life, only to be vampirised by men in fine clothing - no open, overt 'marauding' here... just the insidious clawing of evil depravity - as they do with war to make money, as they do the environment to make money as all innocent and unprotected life is abominated to make money and to keep their power.
It's a war, as depicted right at the end. And this movie mesmerises you the entire way through, confusing you entirely, leading you, just as the back of her neck does... leads as her day goes from a crisp, clean collar to a rumpled one and later, needing to burn the clothing she wears entirely, after she has almost mindlessly and yet unwaveringly, decided to get to the bottom 'of it all.'
Ugly truths, particularly about how our lives are ruled by elites, how women are brutalised at the hands of men, how people will hide truths and do whatever it takes to stay wealthy and protected.
I was totally confused by this when it ended. It took a few hours of hard thinking to get to this. Brilliant, mesmerising and utterly uncomfortable. It is an ugly truth, glaring hard and cruelly at us. We are all enslaved by those in power and by money - and women are the eternal sacrifice to the world of men. (Unless we change it. Thank you #Metoo.) I must add that months later, the implications of how these young women, all lovely with so much to give in life, are chosen to be abominated, abused, raped and tortured, months later, gives me the horrors. I wonder how much of this has gone on 'for covert profit' in those times. If you have issues of horror related to rape, torture of women, beating of women, gratuitious cruelty toward women then I very, very strongly urge you not to watch this film.
The hat store burned down, killing the parents and she was sent away at two.
On later finding her long-lost brother. I realised, after the film was over, that perhaps, with his penchant for ethics and dare I say it, treating people as human beings, it may very well have been him who designed that situation. Three quarter way through the film, he pretty much says as much. '...burn that shop down and end this forever.' His group of rebels are seen as only that and here, the brilliance of showing how, even back then, the media is manipulated to only show the 'truths' they want people to hear.
So in the way of vampirical aristocracy, and so rife in the day, and throughout history, this is basically a story about the abuse and theft of the lives of innocents. Mainly women, seen here so clearly as the 'sacrifice', the 'chosen one' to be abominated by those with power - very powerful men.
Clearly shown, no matter what the class, women never did fare well at the hands of men - whether it is the marauding men who revolt at the upper class, potentially to do 'the right thing' and yet, in their wake, leaving such rape and pillage that we see they have no control over their base natures. Or the elite, those craven filthy aristocrats who take what they want, create wars and rape and pillage but 'dress it up a little as if it's a beautiful thing they do', and therein, my take on this, is the sacrifice of the beautiful, sweet and tender women, sent to deliver 'hats' to ostensibly be used for royalty, with the promise of a better life, only to be vampirised by men in fine clothing - no open, overt 'marauding' here... just the insidious clawing of evil depravity - as they do with war to make money, as they do the environment to make money as all innocent and unprotected life is abominated to make money and to keep their power.
It's a war, as depicted right at the end. And this movie mesmerises you the entire way through, confusing you entirely, leading you, just as the back of her neck does... leads as her day goes from a crisp, clean collar to a rumpled one and later, needing to burn the clothing she wears entirely, after she has almost mindlessly and yet unwaveringly, decided to get to the bottom 'of it all.'
Ugly truths, particularly about how our lives are ruled by elites, how women are brutalised at the hands of men, how people will hide truths and do whatever it takes to stay wealthy and protected.
I was totally confused by this when it ended. It took a few hours of hard thinking to get to this. Brilliant, mesmerising and utterly uncomfortable. It is an ugly truth, glaring hard and cruelly at us. We are all enslaved by those in power and by money - and women are the eternal sacrifice to the world of men. (Unless we change it. Thank you #Metoo.) I must add that months later, the implications of how these young women, all lovely with so much to give in life, are chosen to be abominated, abused, raped and tortured, months later, gives me the horrors. I wonder how much of this has gone on 'for covert profit' in those times. If you have issues of horror related to rape, torture of women, beating of women, gratuitious cruelty toward women then I very, very strongly urge you not to watch this film.