CINDERELLA
UK, 2015, 105 minutes, Colour.
Cate Blanchett, Lily James, Richard Madden, Helena Bonham Carter, Stellan Skarsgaard, Derek Jacobi, Ben Chaplin, Hayley Atwell, Rob Bryden.
Directed by Kenneth Branagh.
This version of Cinderella is one of great charm, a pleasure to watch, entertaining and often funny, with some witty and wry lines – a film for girls of every age, young girls and old girls, but not one for boys of any age!
The screenplay was written by Chris Weitz, writer and director of several very entertaining films, including About a Boy, and directed by that fine actor, Kenneth Branagh. And the cast is top-class, Lily James a lovely as Cinderella, Richard Madden making an impression as the Prince. But it is some of the adults who are entertaining, principally Cate Blanchett as a smilingly cruel stepmother (often wearing green, indicating her envy and jealousy), uttering quite ironic and cutting lines. She spends a lot of time promoting her daughters simply because they are her daughters, whom she thinks are rather stupid (and not incorrectly). Derek Jacobi is the King, Stellan Skarsgaard is the scheming Grand Duke, Ben Chaplin Cinderella’s sympathetic father, with a brief comic turn from Rob Bryden as the artist commissioned to paint the Prince.
The thing is, of course, that we all know what is going to happen. The pleasure is in anticipation and then the satisfaction of seeing how what we were expecting turns out.
There is something of a more serious opening to the film, Cinderella as a young baby, the loving parents, her mother’s death, the father and his travels, and the charming Cinderella making no objections at all to her father’s wanting to marry again. It is clear that she has not yet met her prospective stepmother!
All goes according to the stepmother’s plan when she moves in, installing the daughters, relegating Cinderella to the attic, not allowing her to eat with the family, Cinderella not allowed to do anything much in fact. But, Cinderella has great comfort in her four pet mice, the most engaging little animals on screen since that chorus in Babe 20 years ago. Their comic presence and some of their antics are very entertaining – especially in comparison with the stepmother’s big ugly cat.
Cinderella is certainly an energetic young woman who does ride off in frustration into the forest, encountering the Prince going hunting, pleads for the life of the stag that the hunters are chasing, and thinks the Prince is an apprentice. In the meantime, the Prince has fallen in love, telling his dying father and irritating the Grand Duke who wants the Prince to marry into foreign royalty. So, the ball is proclaimed, stepmother and daughters get their dresses ready, Cinderella being reduced to having to put on her mother’s stress and having stepmother berate her, mock her and tear the dress.
It is time for the fairy godmother to arrive – although it is she who has been doing the amusing voiceover. She appears as an old beggar at the mansion door to whom Cinderella is kind and, lo and behold, a transformed begowned blonde beauty, Helena Bonham Carter. She is very funny as she goes choosing the pumpkin, transforming the lizards into footman, the goose into the coach driver, and the four mice into the horses.
The ball is as lavish as might be expected as is Cinderella’s blue gown, her skill in dancing, talking with the Prince – but it is soon midnight and the spell is lost (except, of course, for the glass slippers which do not disappear).
Some comedy as everybody tries to get the slippers to fit, the cruel stepmother preventing Cinderella from trying – but, and it’s thanks to the mice and their thoughtfulness, that she gets her opportunity and, then, happy ever after. And the final credits conclude with the song from Disney’s 1950 film, Bibbity, Bobbity Boo. What more could one ask for?
1. A pleasing and popular version of the fairytale? Well-known? Happy tale? Live action? For the 21st century?
2. The archetypal elements: the parents and their deaths, the happy childhood, the message of courage and kindness, destiny, suffering, love, transcendence? And the picture of old-fashioned royalty pomp?
3. Kenneth Branagh as director? A lavish production, serious touches, light and comic touches? Strong romance? And the comeuppance of the cruel stepmother?
4. The voice-over, the fairy godmother? Her perspective on characters and situations? Appearing is a begger, the glass of milk, turning into the beautiful Helena Bonham Carter? The promise, searching for the coach, the pumpkin, the lizards as footmen, the mice as the horses, the goose as the driver, the beautiful dress, the glass slippers? The midnight warning? But the slippers not disappearing? The magic of a fairytale?
5. Ella as a baby, happy, living with her parents, growing up with them, with the animals, communicating, the mice and comedy, her mother and her illness, the death, the bequest of courage and kindness? Love for her father, his travels, the gifts? Ella gracious about her father wanting to marry again?
6. The stepmother, imperious, the daughters, ugly, ditzy, stupid, quarrelsome? The bad singing, the teasing of Ella, the name of Cinderella? And the significance of the cat?
7. The character of the stepmother, her later story about her life, losses of husbands? The prospect of poverty, never wanting it again, promoting her daughters while despising them? Her ambitions? Behaving with cruelty, cutting remarks?
8. Ella consigned to the attic, the menial work, the meals by herself, the cold, the cinders on her face? Her continuing to be courageous and kind?
9. Riding into the forest, the stag, wanting it free? The encounter with the Prince, their talk, love, she thinking he was an apprentice?
10. The Prince, his devotion to his father, the visit of the doctor, imminent death, his dutifully obeying orders? The role of the Grand Duke, political, scheming for the marriage, international? The Captain and his friendship with the Prince? The Prince sitting for the painting and the comedy with the painter, his fall in the angles?
11. The announcing of the ball, Princesses to come, commoners to come, the proclamation in the marketplace?
12. The stepmother, her plans, the three dresses, nothing for Ella? Getting ready on the night? Ella and wearing her mother’s address, stepmother and her being callous, terror and address and mocking it?
13. Ella, sad, the fairy godmother, as a begger, her change, the trans formation, looking at the vegetables, the pumpkin, the visits asphalt men, things as driver, the mice as horses? Going to the ball, the long staircase, entry, everybody looking? Kit and his father? The introduction of all the princesses, the plan for his marriage?
14. Kit inviting Ella to dance, the applause, Ella and her brief encounter with the King? The couple going out into the garden, midnight, her rush, losing the slipper?
15. The comedy of the disintegration of the coach, the transformation back to visits, goose, mice, flicking the drawbridge gate?
16. The final talk between father and son, the father allowing his son freedom of choice, praising him for being his own man?
17. The proclamation about the slipper?
18. The stepmother, overhearing the grand Duke, threatening, the plan, her ambitions, to be a Countess?
19. The stepmother confronting Ella, having the slipper, breaking it?
20. The test for the women, the long lines, the sisters and forcing on the shoe?
21. The mice opening the window, Ella singing, the Grand Duke hearing and not hearing, The Captain and his persuading the fitting? The King, meeting Ella, the slipper, accepting each other as they are?
22. The fairytale, the characters coming to life? The comedy throughout with the four mice, the cat, the visits, the goose?
23. The wedding and happy ever after? the final songs – and memories of Bibbity Bobbity Boo?
