Cinderella 2015

     Ella is very happy with her mother and father.  She has a pure heart and she is very kind.  Her mother suddenly dies and her father marries a Stepmother.  Drisella and Anastasia are her daughters and they come along with the Stepmother.  Ella’s father goes on a trip and he doesn’t return.  Ella offers her room to Drisella and Anastasia because it is a bigger room and the stepdaughters have been fighting.  The Stepmother decides that Ella can live in the attic and that will be the best arrangement for them all??  All the eligible young women in the Kingdom are invited to a ball and the Prince will choose one to marry.  Ella thinks she is going to the ball but Stepmother orders only three new dresses?  Is Ella going to be able to go to the ball and what will she wear?  Ella doesn’t know how she is going to continue to live in her parents’ house now that she is called Cinderella the servant and she is a servant?

     This film is not based on the Brothers Grimm’s fairy tale “Aschenputtel” of the nineteenth century because of the more violent and disturbing elements.  It is based on Charles Perrault’s 1697 Cinderella.  This version includes the fairy godmother and the pumpkin coach.  Blanchett is a very wicked Stepmother and her daughters are remarkably very low in intelligent and unkind!!  4 ½* (I really liked this movie)   

   

105 min, Drama directed by Kenneth Branagh with Lily James, Cate Blanchett, Richard Madden, Helena Bonham Carter, Nonso Anozie, Stellan Skarsgard, Sophie McShera, Holliday Grainger, Derek Jacobi, Ben Chaplin, Hayley Atwell, Rob Brydon, Jana Perez, Alex Macqueen, Tom Edden.

Note:  Imdb 6.9 out of 10, Roger Ebert 3* Susan Wloszczyna, Rotten Tomatoes 85% critic 78% audience, The Guardian 3* out of 5* Mark Kermode, Pluggedin.com 4.5* out of 5* Adam R. Holz, Common Sense Media Yvonne Condes age 6+ 3* out of 5*, positive 3*, violence & scariness 2*, sex 1*, language 1*, 3* consumerism, 1* drinking, drugs, smoking, Amazon 4.6* out of 58 with 3945 reviews.

Special Note:  Filmed in Greenwich, London; Woodstock, Oxforshire; Iver Heath and Taplow, Buckinghamshire; Pinewood Studios, Iver Heath Buckinghamshire, England, UK.  Originally, Lily James auditioned for the role of Anastasia Tremaine.  A total of ten thousand Swarovski crystals were placed one-by-one on the blue dress and in Lily James’ hair as well.  Two hundred seventy yards of fabric were used for the dress and up to two miles of hem.  There were a total of eight versions made of the blue dress.  They were used depending on what Lily James was doing in the scenes.  One dress was four inches off the ground for her running scene.  Another dragged on the ground slightly for her entrance at the ball.   In the ballroom dance, many of the dress designs are based on the dresses of various Disney Princesses.   Belle from Beauty and the Beast 1991, Tiana from The Princess and the Frog 2009, Aurora from Sleeping Beauty 1959, Snow White from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs 1937, Mulan from Mulan 1998, Ariel from The Little Mermaid 1989.