Some movies are born as Christmas films. Most of the really bad ones are overflowing with Santa Claus, reindeers, Christmas trees, Nutcrackers and several shades of green and red… But every now and again a movie that doesn’t seem to have anything to do with the holiday season is lifted to the stage of Christmas classics by relentless TV reruns every year… That is the case of Tri orísky pro Popelku/Tre nøtter til Askepott.The English title is Three nuts for Cinderella, and the film is a Czechoslovak/East German retelling of Cinderella’s fairy tale. Cinderella is Popelku, an orphan who’s lived with her cruel step mother and her daughter ever since Popelku’s dad died. Ever since then she’s been reduced to the status of a servant, with barely anything of her own, other than a horse that she has to sneak away to be able to ride from time to time. The step mother enjoys keeping Popelku busy with meaningless labour, and one of her favourite movies is mixing corn and lentils to make Popelku separate them all again.
 |
| Toys inspired by this traditional film... |
It’s a special winter now, because the King and Queen are travelling with their son on their way to the castle and they are to stop by at Popelku’s home. There will be a ball, and the king is determined that his son should marry and get some responsibility, to the boy’s despair, for the prince would much rather spend his days with a crossbow in the woods.
Another detail unique to this version is that this time Cinderella doesn’t simply fall into the prince’s arms. He has to win her instead, and he meets her three times. First as an impoverished girl, dressed in rags who’s trying to stop him from hurting the forest’s animals, then as a skilled sharpshooter pretending to be a boy and finally dressed like a princess at the ball…
The movie is very charming and the outfits in particular are very evocative of classic fairy tales – which is not something I am used to seeing in film, although I couldn’t point out the reason.
Three nuts for Cinderella was sent to me by a friend in Norway. He told me the movie was a Christmas classic over there (due to TV reruns) and whenever he saw it he felt like Chirstmas was finally there. As a matter of fact, the film has acquired Christmas Classic status in several european countries including Norway, Czech Republic, Germany, Slovakia, Switzerland, Ukraine, and sometimes Russia. This film has likened its status to that held by Frank Capra's 1946 It's a Wonderful Life in the United States (and my heart).
The main actress is very impressive in her part. She was 20 years old at the time, but she doesn’t seem older than 15, and she plays the “I’ll show him what girls can do while remaining beautiful and graceful” very convincingly. She plays a very independent young woman, to the point that when the prince declares that he will marry her she tells him that is by no means certain. After all, he hasn’t asked if she wants that.
The film can feel a bit dated, but on the other hand it’s kind of like flipping the pages of an old fairy tale book, so that’s okay. There are not many special effects but the way they got the animals to work – particularly the birds – is quite impressive. Overall the feeling of the movie is very magical, and it’s definitely understandable how it became a Christmas classic… Definitely worth watching to, at least once.
No comments:
Post a Comment