I feel the movie Ever After directed by Andy Tennant and produced in 1998 was an interesting, romantic “real life “version of the childhood fairy tale Cinderella. The director used interesting camera techniques and believable characters to make the story easy to follow and always interesting.
The film was set in the 16th century in France. The costumes were matched to that period of time. Although it still has 16th century traits, there are also modern traits endorsed in the movie. The language is very modern as well as the metaphors used.
Danielle is an independent, fiesty, modern type of character with a lot of pride who strongly follows the belief of equality among everybody, regardless of where they stand in a 16th century society.
The relationships that occur in the film are also modern. (Danielle and Henry) it is modern because it is not an arranged relationship like most in the 16th century and is a relationship regardless of their differences in society, at first Prince Henry’s father does not allow this, but gradually the king sees that his son is right and allows him to marry his true love, Danielle.
The behaviour of Prince Henry is not realistic in this period of time the movie is set in, especially as a royalty, an example of this is when the prince confronts his father and states he doesn’t mind if he gets the crown or not. He also does some modern orientated acts of behaviour, such as running away and returning back at midnight.
Film techniques are used effectively to enhance Danielle’s personality, allowing responders to engage with her character. This is shown throughout the movie using different shots like the zoom in- zoom out technique used in one of the very first scenes to show emotion.
In conclusion, Andy Tennant has done an excellent job on producing a fairy tale come to life with very good film techniques and story line. As well as very well developed characters.
Caleb Azzopardi