Ever After (1998)
Synopsis :
The movie begins with the Grimm Brothers visiting an elderly woman, the Grande Dame of France (Jeanne Moreau), who questions their version of the Cinderella story. The Brothers Grimm reply that there was no way for them to verify the authenticity of their story as there were so many different versions. She proceeds to tell the story of Danielle De Barbarac (Drew Barrymore).
The young Danielle De Barbarac was raised by her father in a small manor in rural Renaissance France after her mother’s untimely death. Her father remarries to a baroness with two young daughters close to Danielle’s age. Shortly after bringing them to his estate, he dies of a heart attack, leaving Danielle with a stepmother and stepsisters she barely knows. The Baroness Rodmilla De Ghent (Anjelica Huston) resents Danielle, as she is jealous of the love Danielle’s father felt for her. By the time Danielle is eighteen, the estate has fallen into decline, Rodmilla’s elder daughter Marguerite (Megan Dodds) has grown to be as cruel and arrogant as her mother, and the younger daughter Jacqueline (Melanie Lynskey) is shown to be sweet-tempered and down-to-earth, but with low self esteem due to her mother’s ridicule and favoring of Marguerite.
Marguerite (Megan Dodds) and Jacqueline (Melanie Lynskey)
Danielle has a series of chance meetings with Henry, the Prince of France (Dougray Scott), who eventually becomes intrigued with Danielle’s wit and intelligence. He is unaware of her true identity or situation because she has assumed her late mother’s name and the guise of a comtesse while appealing for the freedom of a beloved servant.
Throughout the first two acts, Rodmilla schemes with Marguerite to create opportunities for an advantageous position at court. Meanwhile, it is revealed that Prince Henry is causing frustration in his family because he refuses to submit to an arranged marriage with Princess Gabriella of Spain. King Francis, Henry’s father, delivers an ultimatum that he will announce Henry’s engagement at a masquerade ball, either to a girl of Henry’s choice or to the Spanish princess, in five days’ time. Invitations to the ball are sent out to all “eligible’ ladies” of the kingdom, including Danielle, her stepmother, and stepsisters.
Danielle is locked in the manor’s larder on the evening of the ball, and the household servants rally together to find help to free Danielle and dress her for the ball in her late mother’s gown and slippers. She looks like royalty when she finally arrives at the ball, but the baroness humiliates her in Henry’s presence by exposing her as a fraud. As he realizes he has been deceived, he publicly rejects Danielle and she runs from the scene, leaving one slipper behind. It is discovered by Leonardo da Vinci, who reprimands Henry for abandoning Danielle when she had risked everything to come and tell him who she really was.
Danielle is brought to her lowest point when she is essentially sold to a repulsive landowner, Pierre Le Pieu (Richard O’Brien) (who has continually been infatuated with Danielle), in exchange for the return of household goods that Rodmilla had been gradually pilfering and pawning. Henry, meanwhile, is bound to be married to the Spanish princess, but publicly frees her from that obligation and sets off in search of Danielle. Henry comes upon Danielle as she is escaping from her situation; he asks for her forgiveness and her hand in marriage, presenting to her the slipper she left behind on the night of the ball. The two are presumably married in a secret ceremony.
Later, the baroness and her daughters are summoned to visit the royal court. Expecting that Henry will propose to the elder daughter, they hurry there. They must face the queen, who confronts them about their earlier schemes and strips them of their titles. While considering their punishment, the queen asks if anyone will speak on their behalf. Princess Danielle speaks up and says they should be given the same respect they had given her: Jacqueline, who was sympathetic to Danielle, receives mercy and a position at the palace, while her mother and sister are sentenced to labor as commoners in the royal laundry.
Danielle and Henry are presumed to live happily ever after while da Vinci unveils a portrait he painted of her. At the final shot, the Grimm Brothers leave the aged woman’s castle, and it is revealed that the woman is Danielle and Henry’s great great granddaughter.
Starring :
Drew Barrymore … Danielle De Barbarac
Anjelica Huston … Baroness Rodmilla De Ghent
Dougray Scott … Prince Henry
Patrick Godfrey … Leonardo da Vinci
Megan Dodds … Marguerite De Ghent
Melanie Lynskey … Jacqueline De Ghent
Timothy West … King Francis
Judy Parfitt … Queen Marie
Jeroen Krabbé … Auguste De Barbarac
Lee Ingleby … Gustave
Kate Lansbury … Paulette
Matyelok Gibbs … Louise
Walter Sparrow … Maurice
Jeanne Moreau … Grande Dame
Anna Maguire … Young Danielle
Director :
Andy Tennant