Ever After
In the early 1800s, an elderly noblewoman tells the Brothers Grimm that she was not happy with their version of Cinderella. The old lady says that the tale of Cinderella was not a fairy tale, but a true story, and begins to tell the brothers how it really happened.
In Renaissance France, Danielle de Barbarac was raised by her father in a small manor after her mother's untimely death. Her father remarried a baroness with two young daughters, and shortly after he died of a heart attack, leaving Danielle with a stepmother and stepsisters she barely knows. The Baroness Rodmilla De Ghent (Anjelica Huston) resents Danielle, jealous of the love Danielle's father felt for her. By the time Danielle is eighteen, the estate has fallen into decline and Rodmilla's elder daughter Marguerite (Megan Dodds) has grown to be as cruel and arrogant as her mother. The younger daughter, Jacqueline, (Melanie Lynskey) is sweet-tempered and down-to-earth.
Danielle has a series of chance meetings with Henry, the Prince of France (Dougray Scott), who becomes intrigued with her wit and intelligence. Danielle disguises herself as a countess to intercede with Henry for the freedom of one of her servants; Henry is thus unaware of her true identity.
The king and queen are upset that Prince Henry refuses to marry. Delivering an ultimatum, Henry's father tells him that he must announce his engagement at masquerade ball--either to a girl of his choosing or, if he does not choose a fiancee of his own, to the Princess of Spain. Danielle, her stepmother, and stepsisters all receive invitations to the ball.
On the evening of the ball, Danielle's stepmother locks her in the larder. The servants manage to free her, and she dresses up in her mother's old gown and goes to the ball. There, her stepmother humiliates her by telling Henry that she is not the countess that he thinks she is. Henry publicly rejects Danielle and she runs away, leaving one slipper behind which is discovered by Leonardo da Vinci. Leonardo reprimands Henry for abandoning Danielle when she had risked everything to come and tell him who she really was.
Danielle is sold to a repulsive landowner, Pierre Le Pieu (Richard O'Brien) in exchange for the return of household goods that Rodmilla had pawned to Le Pieu. Henry, through a fortunate twist of fate, is freed from his betrothal to the Spanish princess, and sets off to regain Danielle. Before he arrives, Danielle manages to free herself from Le Pieu's service by her own abilities. Henry asks for her forgiveness and her hand in marriage.
The Baroness's schemes are revealed, and she and Marguerite are punished by being sent to work in the royal laundry. Jacqueline, who was always kind to Danielle, is not punished. Danielle and Henry are presumed to live happily ever after; Leonardo da Vinci paints Danielle's portrait. As the story ends, the elderly lady reveals to the Brothers Grimm that she is Danielle's great-great-granddaughter, and still has the portrait and the glass slipper.
