[This is a reprint of my review from the 2011 Toronto International Film Festival. Sleeping Beauty opens tomorrow in limited release.]

Julia Leigh’s Sleeping Beauty invites us into a world which unintentionally undoes its own effect. Ordinarily, the sex acts and humiliation would shock us, but we’re asked to accept a reality in which every character passively accepts these depraved circumstances. The characters have perfectly justifiable reasons for their detachment but their ennui carries over to the audience due to Leigh’s sparse approach, seductive visuals, and Emily Browning’s brave but withdrawn performance. We become numb like the film’s protagonist and we disconnect from any emotional attachment.

A new trailer has gone online for Julia Leigh’s psychosexual drama Sleeping Beauty.  Emily Browning (Sucker Punch) stars as a young woman who becomes a prostitute offering a highly-specified fetish for high-paying clients.  The trailer is a bit misleading as it sets the movie up as more of a thriller with an underlying sense of danger.  As I said in my review, the film numbs you into feeling the ennui and detachment of the protagonist and the cinematography, while gorgeous, is meant to reflect that detachment and beauty of Browning’s character.

Hit the jump to check out the trailer.  Sleeping Beauty opens in limited release on December 2nd.

Julia Leigh’s Sleeping Beauty invites us into a world which unintentionally undoes its own effect.  Ordinarily, the sex acts and humiliation would shock us, but we’re asked to accept a reality in which every character passively accepts these depraved circumstances.  The characters have perfectly justifiable reasons for their detachment but their ennui carries over to the audience due to Leigh’s sparse approach, seductive visuals, and Emily Browning’s brave but withdrawn performance.  We become numb like the film’s protagonist and we disconnect from any emotional attachment.

The teaser trailer for Australian director Daniel Nettheim’s adaptation of The Hunter is now available online. Based on the novel by Julia Leigh (who directed this year’s Cannes-entry Sleeping Beauty starring Emily Browning), The Hunter tells the story of Martin David (played by Willem Dafoe), a mysterious man who is in search of the last Tasmanian tiger known to exist. While this may sound like a straightforward enough narrative, the twist comes from the fact that David must keep his employer and true intent a secret from suspicious townspeople.

Hit the jump to check out the trailer which features some really nice cinematography combined with enough foreboding for two teaser trailers. In addition to Dafoe, The Hunter also stars Sam Neill and Frances O’Connor. The film is scheduled to premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival which runs from September 8th – 18th.

We’ve got some release date news for you this afternoon. First up, a couple of movies that premiered at this year’s Sundance Film Festival have been slated. The financial crisis-centered drama Margin Call is now set for an October 21^st, 2011 release (via Box Office Mojo). The film stars Kevin Spacey, Paul Bettany, Jeremy Irons, Zachary Quinto, Penn Badgley, Simon Baker, Mary McDonnell, Demi Moore and Stanley Tucci. Additionally, Jeff Nichols’ intense psychological drama Take Shelter is set for a limited release on September 30^th (via The Playlist) before going wide on October 7^th. Starring Michael Shannon, the film generated a good amount of buzz at Sundance.

The release date for Pedro Alomodovar’s next film The Skin I Live In has been shifted from October 7^th to October 14^th. Based on Thierry Jonquet’s novel Tarantula, the film stars Antonio Banderas as a plastic surgeron out for revenge on the man who raped his daughter. Finally, IFC Films will release Julia Leigh’s dark psychosexual drama Sleeping Beauty on October 28^th (via The Playlist). The film stars Emily Browning and was an official selection for the Cannes Film Festival.

As we just reported, the selections for this year’s Cannes Film Festival have been announced.  Among this year’s selections is Julia Leigh’s dark psychosexual drama Sleeping Beauty.  How dark is the film?  Well here’s what he heard the synopsis was last year: “a haunting erotic fairy tale about a student who drifts into prostitution and finds her niche as a woman who sleeps, drugged, in a ‘Sleeping Beauty chamber’ while men do to her what she can’t remember the next morning.”

The trailer has some striking imagery and I’m intrigued by the unnerving premise.  Hit the jump to check out the trailer along with some images from the film.  The 2011 Cannes Film Festival runs from May 11 – 22nd.

If you love organizing your movie collection alphabetically, you’re going to love this: Emily Browning will star in Julia Leigh’s Sleeping Beauty.  However, this Sleeping Beauty isn’t so much of a Disney fairy tale as much as it’s “a haunting erotic fairy tale about a student who drifts into prostitution and finds her niche as a woman who sleeps, drugged, in a ‘Sleeping Beauty chamber’ while men do to her what she can’t remember the next morning.”  It seems a little grandiose to construct a chamber specifically for one sex act.  What happened to the good old days where a sex dungeon would suffice for all your haunting erotic needs?  We truly live in a culture of excess.

Browning replaces Mia Wasikowska in the role (who, as we reported yesterday, will star in Cary Fukunaga’s adaptation of Jane Eyre).  Browning also provided a last-minute save last year when she replaced Amanda Seyfried in Zach Snyder’s Sucker Punch. [The Playlist]