PART 1:
Introduction:
The movie Ever After, was released on
July 30, 1998 by 20thCentury Fox[1]. Among the many staff members
responsible for the creation of the movie, are the primary creative personnel
or the director Andy Tennany and the creative managers or producers Mireille
Soria and Tracy Trench [1].
Genre:
Ever After is a movie that can fall
under multiple genres. According to IMDb, it is classified as a drama, romance,
and comedy [2]. However, I would be more inclined to, more specifically, call
it a more hybrid genre of period romantic drama, Fairytale or chick flick [3,
pg.75].
Medium:
Film as a medium, particularly in
this case, has the affect of truly portraying certain themes of the movie that
rely heavily on both audio and visual channels. Within the film, the concepts
of wealth and beauty are heavily implied as crucial aspects. Both help tell the
story though fairy tale related visuals such as the ball gowns and prince
charming, and audio such as the confessions of true love.
Narrative and Storyline:
The story begins with one of the
decedents of Danielle and the Prince relaying their love story to the Brothers
Grimm. Although her voice is not heard throughout the movie, it remains implied
that she is the storyteller.
Danielle’s father
marries a baroness and shortly after dies of a heart attack, she is left at the
whim of her cruel stepmother who treats her like a servant. After a chance
encounter with the prince in which she makes a strong impression by expressing
her strong social views, he is smitten and continues to pursue her not knowing
that she is not nobility. She overcomes her position and ends up marrying the
prince.
Plot:
The story begins with a young
Danielle saying farewell to her father who must leave for business, however as
he leaves he has a heart attack and dies.
10 years later, Danielle is a young
woman tending to the estate. A cloaked mad rides by on one of her father’s
horses. She calls the man a thief and throws an apple at him knocking him off
the horse. The man turns out to be the prince of France and he gifts Danielle
gold coins for her silence.
Danielle must dress up as a courtier
and go to court. She arrives, and demands Maurice be sold back to her, however,
the cargo master refuses. At this point the Prince shows up, and defends
Danielle. Danielle thanks him and attempts to flee, but having been blown away
by her rant, he follows her in attempt to learn her name.
Later that day, the king tells Henry
he has one week to find love, and during the ball he will announce his
engagement to the girl of his choice. Over the next few days, Danielle and the
Prince encounter each other several times.
Danielle’s stepmother finds out about
her activities, and since she desperately wants the prince to choose her
daughter, she locks her away on the night of the ball. Gustav fetches
Leonardo who frees Danielle from her imprisonment so she can go.
At the ball, Danielle makes a late
entrance, and the Prince rushes to her. She tries to tell him the truth, but Rodmilla
gets there first and tells him that Danielle is a servant in her household.
Henry is appalled and denounces her in front of everyone.
The next day, Rodmilla tells Danielle
she cant have her in the way of Marguarite and the Prince, and therefore sells
her off to the slimy old man, Pierre Le Peiu. The prince comes to rescue her.
He apologizes for his behavior and confesses his love. Danielle is made
princess, and lives happily ever after.
Characters:
Danielle: caring, passionate,
sharp-witted.
Functions: to inspire the prince to
do good with his position
Prince Henry: spoiled, romantic, stubborn.
Function: To ‘save” Danielle from her life.
Function: To ‘save” Danielle from her life.
Rodmilla: selfish, opportunistic,
manipulative.
Function: Is the main antagonist.
Gender
Female: 10
Male:15
In terms of quantity, there are more male characters in the film then there are female characters. However, the females take center stage for the majority of the film.
Race:
Everyone in the movie, from main characters to people in the background, are Caucasian/European, except for the Gypsies. Among the Gypsy characters, we know none of their names. This takes on the stereotypical characteristic that you can only achieve wealth, status, and a happy ending if you are white.
Sexuality:
As far as the audience can see, all the characters in the film are heterosexual. This may be in part a result of the time period represented, where sexuality was not commonly talked about.
Female: 10
Male:15
In terms of quantity, there are more male characters in the film then there are female characters. However, the females take center stage for the majority of the film.
Race:
Everyone in the movie, from main characters to people in the background, are Caucasian/European, except for the Gypsies. Among the Gypsy characters, we know none of their names. This takes on the stereotypical characteristic that you can only achieve wealth, status, and a happy ending if you are white.
Sexuality:
As far as the audience can see, all the characters in the film are heterosexual. This may be in part a result of the time period represented, where sexuality was not commonly talked about.
Archetypes:
There are several examples of idealized persons in the film who represent or exemplify particular values or identities [3, pg.107].
There are several examples of idealized persons in the film who represent or exemplify particular values or identities [3, pg.107].
Wise Old Man- Leonardo da Vinci: Fatherly figure to both Danielle
and Henry. He represents “forward thinking”, and uses his personal knowledge
and wisdom on the subject of love to guide the two lovers.
The Temptress- Marguerite de Ghent: Represents competition for the
Prince. She is after him for his position and wealth, while Danielle falls in
love with who he is as a person. Marguerite is beautiful and uses her feminine
charms and physical attractiveness to ensnare the prince.
Star-Crossed
Lovers- Danielle and Prince Henry: the two begin
their love affair, and from the beginning the audience knows it is fated to end
in tragedy. Danielle is lying to Henry about her status, and even if he knew
the truth, their relationship would be disapproved of by society.
Gender Stereotypes:
The film is full of gender stereotypes. The men portrayed are much better off than the women. The most powerful and wealthy people in the movie are the King followed by the Prince.
The highest ranking woman in the film is the queen. Even so, she plays a small role in the movie, and instead of being represented as a woman of power she is shown more as a motherly figure.
Gender Stereotypes:
The film is full of gender stereotypes. The men portrayed are much better off than the women. The most powerful and wealthy people in the movie are the King followed by the Prince.
The highest ranking woman in the film is the queen. Even so, she plays a small role in the movie, and instead of being represented as a woman of power she is shown more as a motherly figure.
Danielle
is also a victim of female stereotypes despite her strong-willed and
self-sufficient ways. Ultimately, she always needs a man to save her.
Rhetorical Devices:
Allusion: in the scene where Prince Henry meets Leonardo da Vinci for the first time, da Vinci makes the joke that he was only invited to court as a guest painter because Michelangelo was stuck under a ceiling in Rome.
Juxtaposition:Marguerite serves to juxtapose Danielle. It is very interesting because the two women the Prince shows the most interest for are the two completely opposite girls. Danielle is compassionate and genuine while Marguerite is superficial and cruel.
POV:
We are seeing the story from a 3rd person point of view, and although it mostly follows the experiences of Danielle, it also follows some encounters Prince Henry and Rodmilla have separate from her. We know the narrator is the Grande Dame of France who is supporting the good of her great great grandmother, Danielle. It therefore may still be biased towards her.
Rhetorical Devices:
Allusion: in the scene where Prince Henry meets Leonardo da Vinci for the first time, da Vinci makes the joke that he was only invited to court as a guest painter because Michelangelo was stuck under a ceiling in Rome.
Juxtaposition:Marguerite serves to juxtapose Danielle. It is very interesting because the two women the Prince shows the most interest for are the two completely opposite girls. Danielle is compassionate and genuine while Marguerite is superficial and cruel.
POV:
We are seeing the story from a 3rd person point of view, and although it mostly follows the experiences of Danielle, it also follows some encounters Prince Henry and Rodmilla have separate from her. We know the narrator is the Grande Dame of France who is supporting the good of her great great grandmother, Danielle. It therefore may still be biased towards her.
Production:
Geographical Location:
The movie was filmed in France for several of its scenes The location helps to give it an authentic French feel, since the story takes place in France.
Demographics:
All of the producers and writers along with the director are American which explains the U.S.-centric and focused format. In terms of gender, it is surprising that such a female directed movie was directed by a male, and that 2 of the 3 writers were male as well.
Geographical Location:
The movie was filmed in France for several of its scenes The location helps to give it an authentic French feel, since the story takes place in France.
Demographics:
All of the producers and writers along with the director are American which explains the U.S.-centric and focused format. In terms of gender, it is surprising that such a female directed movie was directed by a male, and that 2 of the 3 writers were male as well.
Financing: The movie was
produced and financed by 20th Century Fox, a production giant with large
amounts of funds and assets [1]. The film was created for the intent of making
a profit, and appealing to audiences who had adored the Disney Cinderella but
perhaps had grown out of it, and needed an adapted version to fit their lives.
Although 20th Century Fox paid to create the movie, the
real financier of the film is its American audience.
A
Safe Text:
Despite the changes to the original story, ultimately Ever After is not an original text. It takes its storyline from the well loved Disney story Cinderella, which makes it a safe bet that it would be a popular film.
Despite the changes to the original story, ultimately Ever After is not an original text. It takes its storyline from the well loved Disney story Cinderella, which makes it a safe bet that it would be a popular film.
References:
1) Ever After (1998)– Wikipedia, the
free encyclopedia. (n.d.).Retrieved October 6, 2013.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ever_After>
2) Ever After (1998)– IMDb.
(n.d.). IMDb – Movies, TV and Celebrities. Retrieved October 6, 2013
<http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120631/>
3) Long, P., & Wall, T. (2009).
Organizing meaning in media texts: Genre and narrative. In Media studies: Texts production and context (pp.
52-74). Harlow: Pearson Longman.
PART 2:
Introduction:
In today’s film industry, it is easy to
see the way capitalism has taken over what was once socially and culturally
constructed through traditions and creativity. Media today has become part of
the culture industry, and although the origins of many of the motifs and plot
lines may have once been the creation of ordinary people through cultural
influences, are now factory made to please the masses. The film Ever After is a
good example of this trend in society. In analyzing the film it is possible to
see the transformation from authentic culture to culture industry, the
maximization of profits using popular story lines, Standardization and
Pseudo-individualization, and how the culture industry affects consumers and
vise versa.
From
Authentic Culture to Culture Industry:
The film Ever After participates in the
culture industry, however it can be said that the fundamental aspects of the
story were not always part of this industry. It is common knowledge that Cinderella,
as with many of today’s popular fairytales, originated from oral folk tales
passed down for generations; at which point the brothers Grimm compiled the
stories in the first written version in 1697. Cinderella was then adapted by
companies such as Disney to create versions more appropriate for the masses,
which were than readapted repeatedly by other companies to create films such as
Ever After. It is therefore understandable to say that the film Ever After may
have originated as authentic culture, as defined by Paul Long and Tim Wall in
their Media Studies text book as “evinced by either pre-capitalist forms, such
as the tales and songs that ordinary people had created and maintained
themselves, or the work of great artists in literature, art or music” (Long 382).
Films such as Ever After have resulted
from the chiseling down of the original version to only a few general lessons:
true love is most important, and happy endings can only occur by marrying a
prince. In an article by Donald Haase he discusses this transformation by
discussing how “Disney destroyed the proportion in folk tales…folklore is a
universal form, a great symbolic literature, which represents the folk. It is
something that came from the masses, not something that is put over the masses”
(Haase 193). He goes on to discuss how folk tales traditionally had their own
structure, which taught life lessons, roles in life, and the values of
kindness, generosity and compassion. By changing the stories, Disney distorted
that moral purpose and simplified important aspects. Diane Waldman further supports
this idea that “the value of traditional art forms depended upon the notion of
authenticity” and their ability to convey important and relevant messages of
that culture. She states, “the mechanical reproduction destroys the aura surrounding
a work of art it detaches the reproduced object from the domain of tradition”
(Kellner 51). In the original Cinderella
story written down by the Brothers Grimm, the evil step sisters cut off their
own toes and heels in order to fit into the gold shoe the beautiful mysterious
girl from the ball left behind. When the prince finds out that Cinderella is
the actual girl he was looking for, and marries her, the step sisters remain
maimed and have their eyes picked out by crows for their wickedness and falsehood.
Cinderella is rewarded for her piousness and goodness. ("Grimms' Fairytales") The film Ever After maintains these
essential values, coming back slightly from the over-simplified Disney version.
However, the gore is left out for a more acceptable outcome made for the
masses.
Maximizing
Profits with Popular Story Lines:
One of the most obvious reasons for
this film being classified as a participant in the culture industry is its
orientation and marketing towards the masses for profit. As mentioned in
previous blog posts, the film Ever After is generic enough in its genre to
reach multiple segments of viewers. The simplified romance, time period, and
drama appeal to people of all ages, socio-economic statuses, and interests. In
addition, the reuse of the “Cinderella story” with slight modifications is due
to the easy creation of a film that has essentially already been made and
proven to be popular and therefore make money. According to the textbook this
is a critical part of the culture industry as it “produces art or
entertainment where every detail has been predetermined in formulaic fashion
for consumption by a mass audience” (Long 383). The fact that 20th
Century Fox made $65 million in the box office for the movie shows the extent
of the formula’s ability to gain profit for the company.
It is interesting to look at this result
and consider it from the view of the Frankfurt School. They believed in the
revitalization of ideas and ideologies in the form of true culture by society,
and not economics. By looking at the case of Ever After, the Frankfurt School
would identify the film as a product of capitalism, and their search of profit
through the ideological manipulation of love, happy endings, and wealth. They
would point out the lack of enlightenment and personal fulfillment by pointing
out the regurgitation of previous plot lines, altogether lacking any form of
originality or creativity.
Standardization
and Pseudo-Individualization:
This film is a perfect example of the
uses of standardization and pseudo individualization in todays culture industry
defined as “ways in which media products adhere to a simple formulae…the latter
idea suggests that, despite the sameness of media products they appear to be
different but they are not, as the essential formulae remains the same” (Long 383).
This is a popular trend especially in the fairy tale genre. It can be said that
the current “technology of the culture industry confines itself to
standardization and mass production and sacrifices what once distinguished the
logic of the work from that of society” (Kellner 42). Ever After shows the use
of this formula by taking from previous Cinderella stories and even other
popular fairy tales the main plot points, which contain the following: An evil
old woman acts as the antagonist, the protagonist is a beautiful white female
in need of saving, there is a handsome white “prince charming” who rescues the
girl, they fall madly in love at first glance, they get married, they live
happily ever after. The setting, character traits of the people within the
film, and specific details of the film may be altered, but the overall plot
line follows the same formula of many others. In this case, the film attempts
to adapt the protagonist Danielle to be a more modern girl, in a sense. She is
given character traits not typical to the defenseless princesses of Disney, but
is instead self-sufficient, stubborn, sharp-witted, and all around intelligent.
However, ultimately she still needs the prince to save her from her miserable
life under her stepmother’s rule. In addition, the setting of this film takes
place in France, and the characters and attributes of the film adapt to this
new setting without changing anything significant of the movie except perhaps
the context.
Culture
Industry and Consumers:
Interestingly enough this use of
standardization and pseudo-individualization are very obvious when watching
this film. “All mass culture under monopoly is identical, and the contours of
its skeleton, the conceptual armature fabricated by monopoly are beginning to
stand out” (Kellner 42). Could it then be said that consumers who watch and
purchase this film are in a way, idiotic? How else could the reasoning behind
purchasing and repurchasing the same media dressed up in different costumes? According
to the textbook, “the undifferentiated character of the products of the
cultural industry reproduces the audiences in its own image—dull,
unimaginative, repetitive” (Long 384). It can then be said that the culture industry
has influenced and shaped the consumption habits of its audiences into
accepting more simplistic forms of society.
The story of Cinderella is so well
known that watching the film Ever After, you know exactly how the film will
end, the major points in the film, and the main characters before even
starting. The individual scenes in between may add to the entertainment value,
but ultimately people are consuming the same media edited over and over again.
“The mode of reception it forces upon the spectator, and the spectator’s
subsequent loss of creative and imaginative powers...” has had a profound
influence on todays’ film consumers. It has become acceptable to “leave no room
for imagination or reflection on the part of the audience…” (Waldman 44). This dumbing down may have an influence on
the way consumers think, process, and imagine.
This film has certainly had an effect
on what we expect from love. I can speak from experience, as a young girl
between the ages of 12 and 16, watching this film as my favorite movie and
taking away from it certain ideas about falling in love. Unfortunately, many
girls can attest to this molding of their expectations of ones true love
needing to be a bundle of perfection including good looks, romantic settings
and presents, and passionate illogical declarations of love which often times
unwisely affect ones choices and actions. This form of media fulfills the use
and role of assisting with the creation of personal identity and the way one
begins to look at the world. Our taste in media, such as choosing Ever After as
my favorite film, reflects our preferences for information and entertainment,
but also helps us to define ourselves in relation to the text (Long 305). It is therefore very important to “understand
the values informing the motifs and structures that children [and other
audiences] will carry with them. Unless these films are freed from…the spell of
commodity production they will continue in large measure to conform to the
Disney model and the safe fantasies of consumer romance” which will continue to
shape consumers to have unrealistic expectations as well as having a
dumbing-down effect (Haase, 204).
Conclusion:
Films such as Ever After have been
created by the culture industry, which has become a prevalent force in today’s
media. It can be seen that the film’s role in this industry includes the
transformation from authentic culture to culture industry, creating profits for
film corporations using popular themes, exemplifying standardization and
pseudo-individualization, and affecting consumers through their need to create
personal identity. Not only is Ever
After contributing to the culture industry but has also participated in the ever-growing
popularity of the fairytale genre in contemporary media. Its
pseudo-individualization of the genre has led the fairy tale to become even
more popular among the masses. Despite its conformity to standardization, the
film is at least heading in the right direction in terms of beginning to
modernize the female gender as a slightly more self-sufficient one.
Works
Cited:
Haase,
Donald. "Gold into Straw: Fairy Tale Movies for Children and the Culture
Industry." Lion and the Unicorn, Published by The Johns Hopkins
University Press. 12.2 (1998): 193-207. Web. 10 Dec. 2013.
Kellner,
Douglas. "The Culture Industry:Enlightenment as Mass Deception."
Trans. Array Media and Cultural Studies. . Revised. Malden, MA:
Blackwell Publishing Ltd, 2006. Print. <41-60>.
Long, P., & Wall, T. (2009). Organizing meaning in media texts: Genre and narrative. In Media studies: Texts production and context (pp. 52-74). Harlow: Pearson Longman.
Waldman,
Diane. "Critical Theory and Film: Adorno and "The Culture
Industry" Revisited." New German Critique: Published by Duke
University. 1.12 (1977): 39-60. Web. 10 Dec. 2013.
<http://www.jstor.org/stable/487755?seq=6>.
"Cinderella:
A Fairytale by the Grimm Brothers."Grimms' Fairytales. Web. 8 Dec.
2013. <http://www.grimmstories.com/en/grimm_fairy-tales/aschenputtel>.
