Cinderella (2000 film)
A modern fairy tale of fashion and technology.
Cinderella is a 2000 British television film directed by Beeban Kidron, starring Kathleen Turner as the Wicked Stepmother Claudette. It updates the classic fairy tale to a modern world of fashion and technology. The film was one of Channel Four International's top-selling programmes of the year.
Quick Facts
- Based on
- various versions of Cinderella
- Writer
- Nick Dear
- Director
- Beeban Kidron
- Theme music
- Youth; Jaz Coleman
- Country
- United Kingdom
- Language
- English
- Producer
- Trevor Eve; Simon Johnson
- Editor
- Colin Monie
Facts from the source article.
Plot
The heroine Zezolla mourns her mother while her father prioritizes his new wife Claudette and her daughters Gonril and Regan. Claudette treats Zezolla as a servant and slowly poisons the father after learning he is not rich. Zezolla finds friendship with butler Felim and Mab, a mermaid-like woman behind a waterfall. The Queen wants her son Prince Valiant to marry, but he only likes cool things until he sees Zezolla. She attends the ball to sabotage Claudette's search for a husband, dancing with older men to distract her stepmother. The Prince falls in love at first sight, but Zezolla must flee at midnight by jumping into a pool.
Reception
Television critic Kevin McDonough called the film a smashing new adaptation and praised Kathleen Turner's performance as wickedly good, noting stunning cinematography and fabulous costumes. Julie Salamon of The New York Times described it as an amusing, overheated pop version combining gothic thriller overtones with music-video imagery, praising Turner's neon costumes. Authors Elizabeth Ford and Deborah Mitchell found the film visually exciting with natural images and expressionistic use of color, light, and watery distortion. Mike Davies of Birmingham Post called it ambitious and highlighted Turner's scenery-chewing performance. USA Today described it as a true pleasure with visual style and verbal wit.
Releases
In 2000, 4Learning released the film in the UK on videocassette, comprising the film in three parts plus a documentary The Many Cinderellas across four 30-minute programmes; it was used in schools. Educational Media Australia released it on videocassette in 2002. Gull Multimedia International issued it in Taiwan on VCD and DVD in 2005 with English audio and removable Chinese subtitles. Transformer released it in Japan on VHS and DVD in 2006 as rental and retail versions. VEA Group released it on DVD in Australia that year. Simply Media released it on DVD in the UK in 2018, and it became available as streaming video in the US via Amazon Prime, Roku, and Tubi, later Plex in 2020 and Movie Central in 2021.
More in Films Based on Charles Perrault's Cinderella
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