LAUSR

The 1998 film Ever After: A Cinderella Story (Dir. Andy Tennant) opens with a scene in which the brothers Grimm are summoned to the residence of a French noblewoman who wishes to correct their telling of the story of “the little cinder girl” in their collection of folktales. The woman is revealed to be the descendant of Danielle De Barbarac, a fictional figure who, it is claimed within the film, is the inspiration for the “Cinderella” narrative. The remainder of the movie, presented as a recounting of Danielle’s life, purports to represent the story of “Cinderella” as it actually occurred, and not as it is reported in the fairy tale. However, while Ever After is framed as both a retelling of “Cinderella” and—within the context of its premise of Cinderella as a pseudo-historical figure—a “setting straight” of the record concerning that story, the version provided by the film does not deviate very far from either the Grimm version or the Charles Perrault version that has assumed the status of the canonical “Cinderella” text within American culture. In fact, the only significant variation between this account of “Cinderella” and its numerous predecessors derived from Western European contes de f ees is its characterization of the protagonist, which is also presumably the aspect of the Grimm version that the woman in the opening scene takes issue with. Unlike Cinderella in the Grimm version, who is described as “devout and good,” and who patiently bears the abuse of her stepmother and stepsisters without complaint, Danielle is far from docile or obedient. Instead, she is strong-willed and fiercely independent, talking back to her stepmother, standing up for herself, and disobeying orders that go against her principles, even if it means risking punishment for her insubordination. This transformation of Cinderella from paragon of patriarchal feminine virtue to unruly female rebel can be read within the context of the infiltration of girl power discourse into American popular culture at the turn of the millennium, which ostensibly offered an alternative to hegemonic