For my analysis, I have chosen the film Cinderella directed by Kenneth Branagh. This story, familiar to everyone from a young age, is equipped with bright romantic coloring. It raises important themes of humanity, such as inequality, justice, and loyalty. This adaptation is very meaningful, as all the images are conveyed in it with high accuracy. In Cinderella, a viewer can trace the relationships between the characters and relate them to the concept of conflict, maintaining relationships, and reducing uncertainty.
The film begins with the story of a girl, Ella, who lives happily with her parents. After her mother dies, her father finds a new wife to care for the household and help raise his daughter properly. The stepmother arrives not alone but with her two daughters; together, they quickly take over the house, and the father dies on one of his travels (Walt Disney Pictures, 2015). The new mistresses chase the servants away, and Ella takes over all the housework. So she works for them until word spreads in the town of a ball at which the kingdom prince must choose his bride (Walt Disney Pictures, 2015). Kenneth Branagh is not the most obvious director’s choice in bringing the most classic of all fairy tales to the movie screen. He is known for worshipping Shakespeare and has been very reverent about transferring each of his works to the cinematic language. In this case, the director had the chance to show the well-known story from a different angle while retaining all the key moments. Ella is inwardly free but with reverence for her parents, subtle and educated, but not alienated and hard physical labor, gentle, reverent, but also brave and determined. Humorous girl, but without sarcasm, kind and forgiving, and able to rebuff at the right time with all sorts of villains (Walt Disney Pictures, 2015). Self-confident but without impudence, she and equality in marriage take not as a privilege but as an obligation.
The main novelty of the film was that the screenwriter told the backstory of the stepmother, who, like most Disney villains, turns out to be a victim of circumstances. Much attention is paid to the details and parallels between the new “Cinderella” and those projects that viewers may have seen before. The house, the palace, and the animals (the mice are the most memorable characters of the fairy tale), though excessively drawn, the general cartoonishness – all this, in an incredible way, picks up the spirit of the original Disney cartoon. At the same time, the authors, thanks to modern trends, found very earthy protagonists – Lily James and Richard Madden do not shine with the pompous beauty of drawn characters; they are not perfect, but nice, charming, and very suitable for each other.
The concept of conflict plays a very important role in this film. It includes identifying the opposing parties, the causes of the conflict, the modes of conflict, and the evaluation of possible outcomes. The opposing parties are Cinderella and her stepmother. Man is designed to defend his point of view, but sometimes this struggle takes serious forms, and there is a conflict. Conflict is inevitable if a person does not know how to give in. Psychology defines conflict as a lack of agreement between two or more parties. In the case of interpersonal conflict, the parties are individuals or groups, and in the case of intrapersonal conflict, one subject’s attitudes, values, and ideas. At the story’s beginning, Ella is willing to make concessions, but as time passes, she begins confronting the angry woman, thus creating conflict in the film (Walt Disney Pictures, 2015). However, this conflict made it clear to the girl that she should not obey. It shaped her as a person and set her on the right path.
Uncertainty reduction theory is a communication theory that looks at the initial stages of interpersonal communication. The theory assumes that in initial communication, people experience insecurity, which they seek to reduce by obtaining information about the interlocutor (Yan & Gong, 2023). Thus, the social consequence of communication is reducing uncertainty due to receiving information. The more information interlocutors have about each other, the better they predict their behavior and actions. It is also present in this film, and it occurs when the stepmother is so sure that Ella will do all her errands that when she refuses, there is no limit to the woman’s indignation (Walt Disney Pictures, 2015). She does not expect Ella’s usual pattern of behavior to be changed.
The next concept to be found in the movie Cinderella is relationship maintenance. Interpersonal relationships are the subjectively experienced, personally meaningful, emotionally-cognitive reflection of people on each other in interpersonal interaction. In other words, interpersonal relationships are connections between people through emotions, feelings, and judgments. Maintaining them is what an individual is willing to do to maintain the relationship. Cinderella submits to her stepmother, even though she does not like it (Walt Disney Pictures, 2015). She transcends her pride to care for the house and does not abandon her “family.”
Thus, the movie Cinderella is a great example of how concepts apply to interpersonal relationships. It has many characters whose personalities are revealed by the director. This film projects many current themes of humanity and relationship psychology in particular. The viewer can draw a lot of knowledge and conclusions from this film. The film’s director has done a tremendous job, which is why the film is worthy of attention.
References
Walt Disney Pictures. (2015). Cinderella. United Kingdom. Web.
Yan, R., & Gong, X. (2023). Mitigating property quality uncertainty and property fit uncertainty in online peer-to-peer accommodation platforms: An uncertainty reduction theory perspective. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 35(1), 302-320.