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| A Little Princess | |
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| Directed by | Alfonso Cuarón |
| Produced by | Alan C. Blomquist Dalisa Cohen Amy Ephron Mark Johnson |
| Written by | Frances Hodgson Burnett (novel) Richard LaGravenese (screenplay) Elizabeth Chandler (screenplay) |
| Starring | Liesel Matthews, Eleanor Bron, Liam Cunningham |
| Cinematography | Emmanuel Lubezki |
| Editing by | Steven Weisberg |
| Distributed by | Warner Bros. Family Entertainment |
| Release date(s) | May 10, 1995 |
| Running time | 97 min |
| Language | English |
A Little Princess (1995) is a film directed by Alfonso Cuarón based upon the novel, A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett. This adaptation was heavily influenced by the 1939 cinematic version with Shirley Temple and took great liberties with the original story. The action was moved to New York during World War I.
Two of the songs in the soundtrack ("Tyger Tyger" and "On Another's Sorrow") used the words from poems by William Blake as lyrics.
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Plot summary
When her beloved father (Liam Cunningham) enlists to fight for the British in World War I, young Sara Crewe (Liesel Matthews) leaves her childhood home in India and goes to New York to attend the same boarding school her late mother attended. Sara quickly becomes popular and well-liked by the other students whose boring, mundane life is made exciting by the wonderful stories Sara tells, much to the rage of spoilt bully, Lavinia, who worries that she will be put in the shade by Sara. She soon clashes with the severe headmistress, Miss Minchin (Eleanor Bron), who attempts to stifle Sara's creativity and sense of self-worth. However, when word comes that her father was killed in battle and his estate has been seized by the British government, Sara's belief that "every girl is a princess" is tested to the limit. Left penniless, Sara is forced to be a servant to Miss Minchin, who also confiscates all of Sara's possessions, including a locket her father gave her. At first, Sara is lonely, however she begins to dream again after she becomes friends with the other servant, a black girl named Becky (Vanessa Lee Chester) who always loved Sara's stories. The other girls at the school feel sorry for Sara and decide to help her by stealing back the locket. They also join her in her room, listening to the stories she tells.
Meanwhile, in the mansion next door, a rich old man named Charles Randolph (Arthur Malet) has recently lost his son in the war as well, resulting in his being relegated to a wheelchair. He is called to a military hospital only to find that the soldier suffering from blindess and amnesia due to exposure to poison gas is not in fact his son, only a fellow officer in his regiment. On the advice of his manservant, an Indian immigrant named Ram Dass (Errol Sitahal) who had traveled to America on the same ship as the Crewes, Mr. Randolph decides to take the injured soldier home in the hope of eventually learning what happened to his own son. Although a bandage covers his eyes, the soldier's face seems to resemble that of Sara's father.
One evening, Sara tells the girls a frightening tale out of the sacred Hindu text "The Ramayana" about a ten-headed dragon with twenty arms. The girls scream in terror and Miss Minchin finds them. She punishes Sara and Becky by denying them any food the next day. To stay full, Sara suggests that they eat a feast that night. The two girls then pretend to have a banquet in the room that they eat. The next morning, they wake up to find that the room has turned into a palace-like bedroom, with the same food they dreamed of eating the night before. Miss Minchin enters the room and accuses them of stealing everything. She turns them in to the police and the girls decide that Sara must try to escape. Using a plank as a bridge, Sara crosses from the school to Randolph's house. The police arrive shortly after and enter the house to find her, and to arrest Becky as well. In the house, Sara meets the soldier and realizes that he is her father. He is unable to remember her however, even though she tries to remind him. Just as she is being taken away by the police, however, he regains his memory and rescues her, regaining his fortune from the government after remembering his identity.
The movie ends with Sara, her father, and Becky all leaving for India together. Sara says goodbye to all of the girls and leaves them her favorite doll, Emily, as a present. This was the doll Sara hugged when she wanted her father, and so wanted them to have the same comfort. Even the bullying Lavinia overcomes her jealousy and parts with Sara on good terms. Mr. Randolph, learning of how Sara's father attempted to save his son's life in the trenches during the gas attack, chooses to become the school's new headmaster. Meanwhile, Miss Minchin becomes a chimney sweep, presumably after being exposed as mistreating the pupils at her school and stealing Sara's possessions.
Awards
- Winner: 1995 - Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards for Best Music and Best Production Design
- A Little Princess was nominated for two Academy Awards for Best Art Direction/Set Decoration, and Best Cinematography.
Cast
- Eleanor Bron — Miss Minchin
- Liesel Matthews — Sara Crewe
- Vanessa Lee Chester — Becky
- Liam Cunningham — Captain Crewe (& Prince Rama)
- Errol Sitahal — Ram Dass
- Rusty Schwimmer — Amelia
- Taylor Fry — Lavinia
- Rachael Bella — Betsy
- Camilla Belle — Jane
- Heather DeLoach — Ermengarde
- Alison Moir — Princess Sita
External links
- A Little Princess at the Internet Movie Database
- A Little Princess at Rotten Tomatoes
- A Little Princess at Metacritic
- A comparison of the various "Little Princess" films
- A Little Princess at Stars Now.
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