Cinderella Blog Party: La Cenerentola Review

Hello everyone! This is for the Cinderella Blog Party hosted by Heidi from Along the Brandywine.

**DISCRETION: Absolutely none of the photos on this post are mine, not even the photo above!!**

I usually find the most interesting things in my boredom it seems. For instance, North and South. Anyways, this was some time ago, I was bored on Youtube and I wanted to watch something free, full, and interesting. So, I believe that I just ended up looking up 'Cinderella full movie' and that's when this came up:

La Cenerentola

It was in Italian with English subtitles, but I've watched some foreign language films, such as La Vita è Bella and it wasn't horrible at all. I actually liked listening to the beautiful Italian throughout the movie. 

This version of Cinderella began with a lovely young girl named Aurora who is also a skilled pianist. Her father, Valerio, is a conductor living in a fine villa. When Aurora is 13, she grows close to Sebastian, one of the boys who lives next door. He is soft-spoken and understanding and soon wins Aurora's heart. However, they move away, leaving Aurora sad and heartbroken. When her father decides to hire a woman to take care of the household when Aurora's mother dies, he ends up marrying her. Irene, disagreeable woman with two daughters of her own is happy together with Valerio. Together, they live in Valerio's villa- up until his death. Aurora's step mother is a cold-hearted woman. She turns the villa into a hotel and makes Aurora work for her keep, stating that it's a way of paying off the debt that her father left them in. Though Aurora has an inheritance, she cannot even touch it until her 21st birthday. So Aurora works silently and without much protest. Irene makes her quit school and her piano lessons. This doesn't stop her from playing, even if she can't hear it. She traces and paints a piano on her windowsill and sometimes play in a storage house on the real piano when Irene isn't watching. Her friends are the other staff and the young neighbor boys.

Aurora grown up

Now, present day, Aurora is now twenty, I believe. She has grown into a beautiful young woman, when a familiar face moves in next door. A grown-up Sebastian has return, but not his brother who has died some years ago. Another happening is the mysterious guest named Mrs. Cooper who shows up at the hotel and takes an interest in Aurora. Aurora continues to work and even meets up with Sebastian. To be honest, I don't think he realises it's her until the very end. There is an attraction between both of them and though it puts a damper on the relationship because he is to be married, they still see each other.

The ball. I love the contrast of his black and her white costumes

Now, to be honest, I forget how Aurora goes to the ball. Like, I think an invitation comes for the household like the original story goes, but I'm not 100 percent sure. It was a year or so since I watched the movie, so forgive me for any mistakes that I make.

If you're wondering, Mrs. Cooper is the "fairy godmother" character in this version

Mrs. Cooper immediately sets out to help Aurora attend the ball without her step-family knowing, after the step sisters and step mother destroy Aurora's dress that she was working on for the ball. Mrs. Cooper buys her shoes, a beautiful dress, a mask, and everything else. Aurora goes to the ball and eventually has to run from Sebastian before midnight. Even after this, Sebastian continues to go out for a night on the town with Aurora without knowing that his "princess" is the same girl. After she plays the piano at a restaurant, I think that is when he realises that she is indeed his childhood friend from way back when....... I think....

Anyways, this is the version when the "prince" finds out that Aurora and the mysterious girl are the same person. He feels betrayed and deceived and breaks everything off. Aurora is heart-broken and her step-family treat her even worse than before. Aurora also learns a stunning secret about Mrs. Cooper and pushes her away as well. Aurora then decides to move out, with two of the hotel staff members. She goes to an audition of some sort and is accepted in.

When she goes to play in front of a large crowd (it's a song her parents wrote for her) Sebastian arrives unexpectedly, after breaking off his wedding with the other girl (literally, she was in a wedding dress) and forgiving Aurora and they pretty much live happily ever after.

This is the bare synopsis. I think I've missed some details, and I also haven't put many spoilers in at all, so there is some crucial parts missing to it, but that's all in the mystery.

What I love about this movie, was how it took the original story and put a twist on it. And it wasn't the kind that butchers the beautiful fairy-tale while trying to make it unique. It is a miniseries, but it was worth the entire 3 hours(?) of my life. It was so good! And if I could watch it again, I would, but *sigh* they took it off of YouTube. I loved Aurora as a character, quiet, kind, musical, and full of all those good Cinderella traits. Sebastian was also great as well, though it bothered me that it took him so long to see that Aurora was really his childhood friend from way back when. The step-mother and step-sisters were awesome as well. They were mean to Cinderella just like the original, so that didn't deviate from the story. I actually liked Mrs. Cooper a lot, she had a lot of wisdom and was a good 'motherly' figure to Aurora. But I have a guilty confession, I guess. I feel as if the only reason that I like this even remotely as much as I do, is because of the music. The music is beautiful, and "Per Aurora" is so beautifully played on the piano. I'm actually working on trying to play it by ear, since most of the notes are clear up until 51 seconds in.......... Because the strings come in, and it makes it just a trifle hard to decided which notes are which. We'll have to see just how good my ear is for music...... It's definitely been a trying process, trying my patience and my time, but I hope to get it down in time.

Overall, this is a great version of Cinderella and I recommend it for anyone who wants to watch it. It is a clean version, no sexual things (aside from them kissing), no violence, no drugs. There might be alcohol shown, but not in anything horrible. I rate La Cenerentola 9 out of 10.

Let me know if you have seen La Cenerentola before and what you thought of it! If not, let me know if it's on your to-watch list for the future!