Of Lavenders Blue
Monday, April 13, 2015
Just got back from the cinema so while I'm still fresh I thought I'd share some musings before my inspiration dissipates.
So the film in question was Cinderella and, nothing short of a movie review, I liked it. A commendable take on a beloved fairy tale, modern without straying from the romanticism, with solid acting from the likes of Cate Blanchett (her interpretation of the stepmother, while not my favourite passive-aggressive style, was smashing) and Lily James (most Cinderellas, by virtue of their goodness, become too bland and irritating, but she's refreshingly earnest). The adaptation also neatly works its magic in being mildly and unassailingly feminist. Cinderella is no insipid damsel; she's realistic, with believable emotions and an authenticity that charms the prince. Her mother is given a short but sufficient back-story. Lady Tremaine isn't one dimensional. Yet it doesn't shade male characters entirely with in-your-face female dominance. The cast has a good masculine ensemble, a loving father, a wise king, a doting son, a scheming duke, etc. It's just that the strong female presence is a good counterbalance. There's also stellar visuals and a nice message that isn't forced down our throats. Quite a success.
But the one thing that I really want to talk about, the one thing that spoke to me personally, and of course the main thing that correlates to this blog, is the score. In particular, the recurrent use of one of my favourite nursery rhymes.
I'm obsessed with childhood stories and nursery rhymes. My 20 or so hardcover anthologies and antiquated CDs will attest for that. So when Lavender's Blue was used in the film, I could not have been more thrilled. This 17th century lullaby is used noticeably but not overwhelmingly in the score. Ella's mother sings her to sleep with this tune, and it comes to represent a beautiful childhood that is loving, good, and carefree. Even when it is preserved as but a distant, vignetted memory, Ella clings to it, as if singing it will intone all the values that her mother espoused and that were encapsulated in her adolescence, even as it is increasingly difficult to defend them. So when Ella enters the ball and all appraise her with jaw-dropping awe, Patrick Doyle's genius to weave in this age-old melody into the rousing crescendo of track 14 "Who Is She" is not only a moving homage to the mother whose courage and kindness resides abundantly in her child, but a fitting ode to one of the stalwarts of classic fairy tales.
Finally, the ending. This might be an appropriate time for a *spoiler* heads-up. So please skip where necessary.
I'm not sure if I'm the only one who picked this up but in the original 1950's animation, Cinderella is identified not just by fitting the shoe she left behind, but by producing its counterpart as hard evidence. In this production, Lady Tremaine is much sharper in detecting Ella's dreamy daze, and she promptly smashes the slipper into smithereens. She then triumphantly mocks the latter that she no longer has any verifiable proof and that the lowly truth of her servitude will no less serve her ill. Indeed, we think the game's up for Ella, but just as the search party is about to leave, evil meets its coup de grâce. Ella ever undaunted and never dispirited, is singing her trusty number when her voice is carried to the party below, which unsurprisingly comprises a disguised Kit a.k.a Prince Charming. This is the ultimate clincher, the climax of the metaphor. With or without the glass shoes, the prince chooses Ella because he recognises, and more importantly, loves her not just cursorily but characteristically. From their first encounter, beyond her sweet exterior, her maxim of having courage and being kind was always embodied. In the end, the song, the creed of bravery and kindness, became a poignant symbol of not only her reunion with Kit but of her legitimacy. There could not have been a more compelling verification of her identity.
*Spoiler ends*
As I close, I will just say that the film itself was swell, but it was the shrewd, delicate touch of the well-loved Lavender's Blue that won me over. Kit ascends as king with Ella as his queen, and if any were to doubt his choice, we need only look to the prophetic lyrics, "Twas my own heart, dilly, dilly, that told me so". After all, it's the heart that truly matters.
Until next time,
Jac
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