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Bit 1
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In Ever After, living happily ever after is the destiny of
Danielle, the girl who sweeps up the cinders, and Henry, the handsome
prince; but they must first overcome obstacles on their road to Utopia.
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Bit 2
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Making use of the popular twentieth-century notion of "Utopia" in a
sixteenth-century story is one of the little liberties Ever After
writers Susannah Grant, Andy Tennant and Rick Parks have taken
to give texture to their Cinderella story.
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Bit 3
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In a prologue to the romance, Auguste (Jeroën Krabbé),
widowed father of eight-year-old Danielle, returns from a
journey with a new stepmother and stepsisters for his daughter. Besides
having her father back home, the biggest thrill for the little girl is
his homecoming gift of a brand-new copy of Sir Thomas More's Utopia.
Auguste's death leaves Danielle to the mercy of her
stepmother Rodmilla (Anjelica Huston), but when we meet the grown-up
Danielle (Drew Barrymore) ten years later, her few comforts include the
well-thumbed copy of Utopia.
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Bit 4
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Utopia was first published (in Latin) in 1516, and reprinted
five times over the next three years. So it seems that the romance of
Danielle and Prince Henry (Dougray Scott) probably gets off the ground
slightly before 1530. The plot stresses the importance of the book as
linking love, learning, and love of learning.
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Bit 5
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First, Utopia is the device that allows Prince Henry to
recognise Danielle's learning when, seeking to buy the release of a
faithful retainer sold to pay Rodmilla's debts, she quotes from it.
Through this plot point, Danielle and Henry discover the love of
learning they have in common. Second, the book is half of the terrible
choice Rodmilla offers her when stepdaughter Marguerite (Megan Dodds)
wants to seize the jewelled slippers Danielle's mother left to her:
"Your father's book, or your mother's shoes!" In any case, the
precious book is consigned to the fire.
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Bit 6
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Danielle's earlier speech when she wants freedom for the servant, her
evident learning, and her spunky behaviour lend a contemporary aura to
her "Bible", Utopia (and the film), in line with a now-common,
though erroneous view of Thomas More as a socialist and "Utopia" as a
paradise. But though More described equality and shared resources in
his invented society, and advocated the female education he practised in
his family, "Utopia" (he invented the word) was hardly Shangri-La, and
women's education was not to give them careers, but to bring honour to
their households.
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Bit 7
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There's a bit more artistic licence in a little juggling of dates
engaged in by Grant, Tennant and Parks to make a good story. In the
year Danielle and Prince Henry meet, according to the script, Leonardo
da Vinci arrives in the French countryside, telling Danielle that King
Francis (Timothy West) has given him a court appointment -- and he's the
lucky candidate, as the other contender Michelangelo is busy (working on
the Sistine Chapel). Francis I, king of France between 1515 and 1547,
was succeeded by his son Henry, who ruled from 1547 to 1559. Leonardo
da Vinci spent the last two years of his life (1517-1519) in France, in
a chateau near the court residence of Amboise, at the invitation of
Francis I, owner of the Mona Lisa. Michelangelo was tied up even
earlier, painting the Sistine Chapel between 1508 and 1512.
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Bit 8
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In another plug by the writers for freedom and equality, they have Henry
asking Danielle why she isn't in church; when she says something to the
effect that her faith does not need such surroundings, he says, "I'm
afraid my father's edict has created quite a phenomenon". In 1535
Francis I issued the Edict of Coucy (an amnesty for religious prisoners
and exiles), extending it the next year to all heretics; however, this
did not mean the religious tolerance the script suggests.
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Bit 9
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But this is a romantic comedy, not a Renaissance history lesson, and so
we can also overlook modern dialogue along the lines of "I guess we'll
never know", "they'll never buy it", or "you've got bigger problems" --
all designed to make today's viewers identify with the characters, and
not alienate them with a lot of thees and 'tweres. Our suspicions that
Pierre Le Pieu (Richard O'Brien) is a really creepy suitor for Danielle
are also confirmed because in the script Pieu is pronounced "pew".
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Bit 10
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At the end of all good pantomimes, when all are lined up, the good and
the bad, the formula "all is forgiven" is spoken, and the bad become
good; and they all live happily ever after. In Ever After,
when our last sight of the beauteous Barrymore and her Leonardo da Vinci
portrait is of a face radiating goodness, we know that grudges will not
be held as the way is made straight for the lovers' progress to
happiness ever after.
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Bit 11
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Details
Ever After, by Twentieth Century Fox, 1998.
Director: Andy Tennant.
Screenplay: Susannah Grant, Andy Tennant, Rick Parks.
Cinematography: Andrew Dunn.
Production Design: Michael Howells.
Costume Design: Jenny Beavan.
Cast: Drew Barrymore, Anjelica Huston, Dougray Scott, Megan Dodds, Richard O'Brien.
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Bit 12
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Citation reference for this article
MLA style:
Shane Lewis. "Rocky Road to Utopia: 'Ever After'." M/C Reviews 9 Jan. 99.
[your date of access] <http://www.uq.edu.au/mc/reviews/screen/ever.html>.
Chicago style:
Shane Lewis, "Rocky Road to Utopia: 'Ever After'," M/C Reviews 9 Jan. 99,
<http://www.uq.edu.au/mc/reviews/screen/ever.html> ([your date of access]).
APA style:
Shane Lewis. (1999) Rocky road to Utopia: 'Ever After'. M/C Reviews 9 Jan. 99.
<http://www.uq.edu.au/mc/reviews/screen/ever.html> ([your date of access]).
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![[image]](http://www.geocities.com/CollegePark/Lab/1770/ea/eathemesb.jpg)