Ever After

This article is about the 1998 film. For other uses, see Ever After (disambiguation).

Ever After: A Cinderella Story
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Andy Tennant
Screenplay by	Susannah Grant Andy Tennant Rick Parks
Produced by	Mireille Soria Tracey Trench
Starring	Drew Barrymore Anjelica Huston Dougray Scott Megan Dodds Melanie Lynskey Jeanne Moreau
Cinematography	Andrew Dunn
Edited by	Roger Bondelli
Music by	George Fenton
Production company	Flower Films
Distributed by	20th Century Fox
Release date	July 29, 1998
Running time	121 minutes (approx.)
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	US$26 million (estimated)
Box office	$98,005,666

Ever After: A Cinderella Story is a 1998 film inspired by the fairy tale Cinderella, directed by Andy Tennant and starring Drew Barrymore, Anjelica Huston and Dougray Scott. The screenplay is written by Tennant, Susannah Grant, and Rick Parks. The original music score is composed by George Fenton. The film's closing theme song "Put Your Arms Around Me" is performed by the rock band Texas.

The usual pantomime and comic/supernatural elements are removed and the story is instead treated as historical fiction, set in Renaissance-era France. It is often seen as a modern, post-feminism interpretation of the Cinderella myth.

Plot

In the 19th century, Grande Dame Marie Therese summons the brothers Grimm to her palace, where the brothers discuss their interpretation of the Cinderella story and notice a painting displayed in the room. Marie shows the brothers a glass slipper and tells them the story of Danielle de Barbarac, the true story of Cinderella. In 16th-century France, Auguste de Barbarac, father of 8-year-old Danielle, marries Rodmilla de Ghent, a wealthy baroness with two young daughters, but dies of a heart attack shortly afterward. This causes Baroness to envy Auguste's affection for Danielle and treat her miserably. One of her stepsisters, Marguerite, abuses her while the other stepsister, Jacqueline, keeps quiet. By the time Danielle is 18, she has been reduced to a servant in her own house, raising bees and crops on the manor, and clinging to her father's last gift, a copy of Thomas More's Utopia. While collecting apples, Danielle sees a man stealing her father's horse, and unseats him with an apple. When she recognizes he is Prince Henry, she abases herself. He gives her a bag of gold in exchange for her silence. She decides to use the money to rescue their servant, Maurice, whom the Baroness has sold to pay her debts.

Henry's escape from the duties of court is foiled when he encounters a band of gypsies robbing an old man. He learns that the old man is Leonardo da Vinci, who has been summoned to court, then returns with him. Meanwhile, Danielle has dressed as a "lady of the court" and gone to buy back Maurice, but the guards refuse, saying he is being deported to the New World colonies. She argues for his release, and when Henry overhears he orders Maurice's release. Amazed by Danielle's intelligence, he begs for her name. Danielle instead gives him her mother's name, "Comtesse Nicole de Lancret". King Francis and Queen Marie of France tell Henry that he must choose a bride before the upcoming masquerade ball, or he will have to wed the Spanish princess Gabriella. All the noble families receive an invitation, and at first Danielle believes she is included. When collecting apples, she meets Henry again by the river, in the company of Leonardo. They engage in a lively debate before Danielle runs off. Henry searches for her, inviting her to visit the library of a nearby monastery. On the way home, they are accosted by the gypsies, who are amused by Danielle's outrage and agree to release her with whatever she can carry. She picks up Henry, and they laughingly offer them a horse. They spend the night in the gypsy camp, before sharing their first kiss and arranging to meet again.

The next morning, Danielle catches the Baroness and Marguerite stealing her mother's dress and slippers for Marguerite to wear for the ball. Danielle fights with Marguerite until Marguerite threatens to throw Utopia into the fireplace. Danielle returns her mother's dress to the Baroness in exchange for the book, but Marguerite burns it in the fire anyway. When she meets Henry the next day, she wishes to tell him the truth, but is afraid he will reject her after he confesses his love. After the Baroness discovers Danielle is the Cometesse, she locks Danielle in the kitchen. Her childhood friend Gustave persuades Leonardo to help free her, making her a pair of wings for the ball with her mother's dress and slippers. Moments after Danielle arrives, the Baroness reveals the truth about her identity in front of Henry. Shocked and enraged over her deception, Henry refuses any explanation from her. While fleeing from the castle, she trips and falls, losing one of her slippers. Leonardo finds it, and reprimands Henry for his attitude to no avail, then leaving him with the slipper. Realizing Danielle is his match, Henry calls off his wedding to Gabriella mid-ceremony, only to find that the Baroness has sold Danielle to vile landowner Pierre le Pieu.

After he sees Danielle leaving Pierre's mansion, he apologizes for his ignorance and proposes to her, to which she cries into his arms and shares a kiss. The Baroness and her daughters are summoned to the court, assuming that Henry plans to propose to Marguerite. Instead, they are stripped of their royal titles and are threatened to be exiled from France. Henry introduces Danielle as his wife, and Danielle asks the King and Queen to show them the same courtesy they have shown her. The Baroness and Marguerite are hence sent to work as laundry maids in the palace, while Jacqueline is spared punishment due to her kindness towards Danielle, and becomes her lady-in-waiting. Marie tells The Brothers Grimm that Danielle was her ancestor and although her story was reduced to a fairytale and that Danielle and Henry lived happily ever after, the fact was that they lived. The brothers depart Marie's palace to share with the world the true story of Cinderella.

Cast

• Drew Barrymore as Danielle de Barbarac / "Comtesse Nicole de Lancret"
  • Anna Maguire as 8-year-old Danielle
• Anjelica Huston as Baroness Rodmilla de Ghent
• Dougray Scott as Prince Henry
• Megan Dodds as Marguerite de Ghent
  • Elizabeth Earl as young Marguerite
• Melanie Lynskey as Jacqueline de Ghent
  • Alex Pooley as young Jacqueline
• Patrick Godfrey as Leonardo da Vinci
• Timothy West as King Francis
• Judy Parfitt as Queen Marie
• Richard O'Brien as Pierre le Pieu
• Jeroen Krabbé as Auguste de Barbarac
• Lee Ingleby as Gustave
  • Ricki Cuttell as young Gustave
• Walter Sparrow as Maurice
• Matyelok Gibbs as Louise
• Kate Lansbury as Paulette
• Jeanne Moreau as Grande Dame Marie Thérèse of France
• Joerg Stadler as Wilhelm Grimm
• Andy Henderson as Jacob Grimm

Production

Ever After was filmed in Super 35 mm film format; however, both the widescreen and pan-and-scan versions are included on the DVD. This is the only Super 35 mm film directed by Andy Tennant; his previous films were filmed with spherical lenses, while his subsequent films used anamorphic lenses.

The castle shown in the film is the Château de Hautefort, in the Dordogne region of France. Other featured châteaux are de Fénelon, de Losse, de Lanquais, de Beynac as well as the city of Sarlat-la-Canéda.

The painting of Danielle seen in the film is based on Leonardo Da Vinci's Head of a Woman (La Scapigliata).

Critical reception

Ever After has received mostly positive reviews from critics. Review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes reports that 90% of critics have given the film a positive review based on 61 reviews, with an average score of 7.5/10. The critical consensus is: Ever After is a sweet, frothy twist on the ancient fable, led by a solid turn from star [Drew] Barrymore. Another review aggregator, Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 top reviews from mainstream critics, calculated a favorable score of 66 based on 22 reviews.

Lisa Schwarzbaum from Entertainment Weekly gave the film a B-, saying: "Against many odds, Ever After comes up with a good one. This novel variation is still set in the once-upon-a-time 16th century, but it features an active, 1990s-style heroine -- she argues about economic theory and civil rights with her royal suitor -- rather than a passive, exploited hearth sweeper who warbles 'A Dream Is a Wish Your Heart Makes'." She also praised Anjelica Huston's performance as a cruel stepmother: "Huston does a lot of eye narrowing and eyebrow raising while toddling around in an extraordinary selection of extreme headgear, accompanied by her two less-than-self-actualized daughters -- the snooty, social-climbing, nasty Marguérite, and the dim, lumpy, secretly nice Jacqueline. "Nothing is final until you're dead", Mama instructs her girls at the dinner table, "and even then I'm sure God negotiates".

Chicago Sun-Times film critic Roger Ebert, while praising the film with 3 out of 4 stars, wrote that "The movie [...] is one of surprises, not least that the old tale still has life and passion in it. I went to the screening expecting some sort of soppy children's picture and found myself in a costume romance with some of the same energy and zest as The Mask of Zorro. And I was reminded again that Drew Barrymore can hold the screen and involve us in her characters. [...] Here, as the little cinder girl, she is able to at last put aside her bedraggled losers and flower as a fresh young beauty, and she brings poignancy and fire to the role."

DVD and Blu-Ray release

The film was released on DVD March 3, 1999. On January 4, 2011, the film was released on Blu-Ray.

Musical adaptation

A musical version of the film is currently in the works, with the book and lyrics by Marcy Heisler and music by Zina Goldrich. The musical was originally scheduled to have its world premiere in April 2009 at the Curran Theatre in San Francisco, but the pre-Broadway run was postponed. In May 2012, it was announced that the project is back on track with Kathleen Marshall signing on to direct a Broadway run. The musical will also feature music by Zina Goldrich and book and lyrics by Marcy Heisler. A workshop of the musical will be held from April 25 - May 15, 2013 with Sierra Boggess as Danielle, Jeremy Jordan as Prince Henry, and Ashley Spencer as Marguerite. The musical will make its world premiere at the Paper Mill Playhouse from May 21-June 21, 2015.

See also

• Ever After, the novel by Wendy Loggia, based on the screenplay by Susannah Grant, Andy Tennant and Rick Parks

External links

• Ever After at IMDb
• Ever After at AllMovie
• Ever After at Rotten Tomatoes
• Ever After: A Cinderella Story at Box Office Mojo