Three Wishes for Cinderella
A Czech/East German version of the ancient folk tale. They say that over in much of Eastern Europe, Germany and Norway* this film is like It’s a Wonderful Life in terms of its place in the Christmas Pantheon.
This is a nice retelling of an old story, filled with warmth and charm. They give Cinderella a bit more of a spine than usual - she doesn’t just immediately start swooning for the prince but makes him go after her. In fact if I were to pick holes in this it’s that I don’t see why she’s interested in the prince at all, she’s a total baddie and could do better. Seems like a crazy way to spunk three wishes.
Interestingly enough Cinderella is played by Libuse Safránková who was also in Kolya1, which I only watched earlier this year. She’s a great choice here, extremely pretty but unassuming and with a tomboyish charm.
You can’t ditch the romance in Cinderella however, and although it can be a bit forced it makes for quite a good ballroom scene with some real tension running through it. It’s also nicely offset by the parents mocking their son, who thinks he’s the shit but is a total dud.
The camera work and direction is quite artsy and every shot is carefully composed without over-doing it, a bit like an Eric Rohmer film maybe.
Not a Christmas film per se, but definitely a film to watch at Christmas.
* The Norwegian version is one of those dubs where it’s just one bloke doing all the voices2