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Ever After: A Cinderella Story: (George Fenton)
Despite the fame associated with Disney's animated
Cinderella,
the classic film has very little in common with the actual fable written
by the Brothers Grimm. Closer to the reality of the original story is
Andy Tennant's live action adaptation in 1998, following true to many of
the more mundane elements in the story. A 16th Century servant with the
nickname of "Cinderella" has a chance encounter with a French Prince and
the two of them play the expected games of disguise and charm until the
expected romantic conclusion. More interesting than the film's story is
the ability of the filmmakers to adapt purely 20th Century language and
behavior into a 16th Century setting, translating the story into an
easily digestible fable for even today's teenage girls to hold dear and
drool over. A debate about the focus of the film's music was originally
had between the director and composer George Fenton, who was equally
skilled in both modern romance and classically-inclined period writing.
The debate was made more interesting by the widespread popularity of
"The Mummer's Dance" by Lorena McKennitt and "Fable" by Robert Miles in
the film's trailers, building credibility in the argument that a modern
sound would better suit the target audience of the film. While a new age
approach similar to that of the trailers would likely have worked given
the presence of other time-bending aspects of the film, Fenton would
ultimately produce a score that met the classical and new age genres
halfway. His straight forward approach to the romance makes very few
period references, and even employs an Irish tilt that was hugely
popular at the time because of James Horner's
Titanic. Compared
to Fenton's other concurrent romance work,
Ever After would fall
in between
Dangerous Beauty and
The Object of My
Affection, with the conservative pull of the latter watering down
the power of the former. A certain amount of humor and pomp in
Ever
After, combined with the expected sweeping strings of romance,
create an atmosphere of light-hearted spirit similar to Patrick Doyle's
Much Ado About Nothing.
Fenton's title theme is whimsically played on high
strings with a sensibility that owes much to the scores of Hollywood's
Golden Age. It won't knock you over as
Dangerous Beauty did, but
its charm is finally translated into a bold and heroic brass performance
in the final cue. Of weaker stature are two or three sub-themes
occasionally performed and developed, but none really captures the magic
of the story. If you're looking for mysticism in Fenton's work here,
you'll be disappointed, for many portions of the score (such as the low
key "The Proposal") could very well serve a contemporary urban romance
setting. While the glamour of the string themes will likely attract most
of the devoted listeners to
Ever After, the score's truly
interesting and unique moments exist in its ethnic and royal flavor.
Introduced in the latter half of "Cinderella" and occupying all of "The
Homecoming," the Uillean pipes, fiddle and graceful flute solos in these
sections are a highlight. Also of note are the fanfares of significant
bombast that Fenton inserts as a necessary nod to the royal aspects of
the story. Snare-ripping and brass heroism raises Erich Wolfgang
Korngold's swashbucklers in "The Girls, the Prince and the Painting" and
this heightened style is reprised with classical flourishes in "Going to
the Ball," the only true period piece in the score. The comedy cues in
Ever After are also of note due to their use of the full
ensemble; both "Your Highness - What a Surprise" and "Marguerite"
feature the chopping string rhythms of Thomas Newman's more playful
moments. A single choral cue for "The Royal Wedding" provides a
necessary serious and somber tone that reminds of the elegance of
Shadowlands. On the whole, however, if Fenton's
Ever After
has a weakness, it's the inability of the collective themes to really
tie the package together into a cohesive whole. The score has
significant merit in its individual sections, but begs for rearrangement
and compilation enjoyment. The album for
Ever After contains an
echoing mix of Texas' Put Your Arms Around Me, a modern rock affair
unrelated to the score. Neither of the two much-hyped songs used in the
trailers are contained on this album, but are readily available on their
own artists' releases. It remains fascinating that despite the many
qualities of Fenton's score for this film, the trailer music continues
to dominate mainstream listeners' interest to this day.
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| Bias Check: | For George Fenton reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating
is 3.64 (in 14 reviews)
and the average viewer rating is 3.47
(in 15,812 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
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The insert contains a short note from the director about the score and film.
