A Little Princess (1995 film)

A Little Princess
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Alfonso Cuarón
Produced by	Alan C. Blomquist Dalisa Cohen Amy Ephron Mark Johnson
Screenplay by	Richard LaGravenese Elizabeth Chandler
Based on	A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett
Starring	Liesel Matthews Eleanor Bron Liam Cunningham Vanessa Lee Chester
Music by	Patrick Doyle
Cinematography	Emmanuel Lubezki
Editing by	Steven Weisberg
Studio	Baltimore Pictures Warner Bros.
Distributed by	Warner Bros.
Release date(s)	May 10, 1995 (1995-05-10)
Running time	97 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$17 million
Box office	$10,015,449

A Little Princess is a 1995 American children's film directed by Alfonso Cuarón, starring Liesel Matthews, Eleanor Bron, Liam Cunningham, and Vanessa Lee Chester. Set during World War I, it focuses on a young girl who is relegated to a life of servitude in a New York City boarding school by the headmistress after receiving news that her father was killed in combat. Loosely based upon the novel A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett, this adaptation was heavily influenced by the 1939 cinematic version and takes creative liberties with the original story.

Due to poor promotion by Warner Bros.,^{[citation needed]} the film hardly made back half its budget. However, the film was critically acclaimed and given various awards, such as an Academy Award nomination {{}} for its significant achievements in art direction and cinematography, among other aspects of its production.

Plot

Sara Crewe (Liesel Matthews) loves her childhood home in India, but she has to leave it when her beloved father (Liam Cunningham) enlists to fight for the British in World War I. He enrolls her at Miss Minchin's Seminary for Girls in New York, the same school Sara's late mother attended, and spares no expense to make sure his daughter will be comfortable while he is gone.

Sara quickly becomes popular and well-liked by the other students, whose boring, mundane lives are made exciting by the wonderful stories from "The Ramayana" Sara tells. The school's spoiled bully, Lavinia (Taylor Fry), becomes angry over Sara's increasing popularity. She often clashes with the severe headmistress, Miss Minchin (Eleanor Bron), who attempts to stifle Sara's creativity and sense of self-worth. Sara attempts to befriend the school's black servant girl, Becky (Vanessa Lee Chester), but is told to avoid her. Miss Minchin throws Sara a lavish birthday party in order to extract more money from her father, but when word comes that her father was killed in battle and his estate has been seized by the British government, she forces Sara to become a servant. Miss Minchin also confiscates all of Sara's possessions, including a locket her father gave her. Sara's belief that "every girl is a princess" is put to the limit and she stops telling stories. Her friendship with Becky grows and her other school friends sneak up to the attic to see her. Feeling sorry, Sara's friends decide to surprise her by stealing her locket. Touched by this, Sara continues "The Ramayana".

Meanwhile, in the mansion next door, a rich old man named Charles Randolph (Arthur Malet) has recently received word that his son, John, also fighting in WWI, is MIA, resulting in his being relegated to a wheelchair. He is cared for by an Indian immigrant named Ram Dass (Errol Sitahal) who had traveled to America on the same ship as the Crewes. Ram Dass keeps an eye on Sara, knowing that she is a kind hearted girl. Mr. Randolph is called to a military hospital hoping an unidentified soldier suffering from blindess and amnesia due to exposure to poison gas is his son. Ram Dass convinces Mr. Randolph to take the injured soldier in anyway, reminding him that the soldier may know what happened to John.

One evening, as Sara tells the girls a frightening tale of Ravana, 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 as Ram Dass watches. 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, courtesy of Ram Dass. Miss Minchin enters the room later that day 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 narrowly crosses from the school to Randolph's house. The police arrive and enter the house to find her, and to arrest Becky as well. In Randolph's 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. Miss Minchin tells the police that Sara has no family, though she clearly recognizes Sara's father. Just as she is being taken away by the police, however, Ram Dass helps Captain Crewe to regain his memory and rescue her.

The film ends with Sara, her father, whose assets and fortune have been restored by the British government, and Becky all leaving for India together. Sara says goodbye to all of the girls and leaves them her favorite doll, Emily, given to her by her father before the war, as a present. Even the bullying Lavinia overcomes her jealousy and parts with Sara on good terms. Mr. Randolph learns of how Sara's father attempted to save his son's life in the trenches during the gas attack, and becomes the school's new headmaster. Meanwhile, Miss Minchin becomes a chimney sweep, working for a boy she previously mistreated.

Cast

• Liesel Matthews as Sara Crewe- the main protagonist of the story. She is sent to live in a boarding school while her father goes off to fight in the war. She becomes known as a storyteller and a princess. When her father dies and she is left penniless, she is made to work like a servant. At the end of the film, she returns to India with her father and Becky.
• Eleanor Bron as Miss Minchin- the main antagonist of the story. She is a selfish woman who forces Sara to work as a servant and tries to encourage her that she is no longer a princess. She is the older sister of Amelia.

• Liam Cunningham as Captain Crewe/Prince Rama
• Vanessa Lee Chester as Becky
• Rusty Schwimmer as Amelia
• Arthur Malet as Charles Randolph
• Errol Sitahal as Ram Dass
• Taylor Fry as Lavinia
• Heather DeLoach as Ermengarde
• Darcie Bradford as Jesse
• Rachael Bella as Betsy
• Alexandra Rea-Baum as Gertrude
• Camilla Belle as Jane
• Lauren Blumenfeld as Rosemary
• Kelsey Mulrooney as Lottie
• Kaitlin Cullum as Ruth

Differences from the book

• The book takes place in Victorian era London, while the film is set in New York City at the time of World War I. Sara's father also fights in World War I here, which he did not in the book.
• Like the Shirley Temple film version, this adaptation changes the fate of Sara's father. While he dies of brain fever in India in the book, here he is said to have been killed in the war. He is revealed to have been alive all along only with amnesia, and the movie ends with Sara going to live with her father.
• In the book, Becky is a stereotypical Victorian-era Cockney girl. In the movie, she is African American.
• The character of Carrisford does not appear in this version.
• In the book, Ram Dass gradually fills Sara's attic room with fresh bed sheets, extra food, and other amenities over time, while in the movie, Sara and Becky wake up to find the room completely furnished and decorated for them with all the food.
• In the book, Sara crawls over into the house and meets Ram Dass and Carrisford there. The movie has an entirely different take on this; Miss Minchin discovers the decorated attic room and accuses Sara of stealing so she calls the police. Sara escapes from the police by crawling across into the other house where she finds her amnesiac father.
• In the book, Miss Minchin is allowed to keep the school but lives in terror that Sara could ruin her with one word to Carrisford. In the movie, Mr. Randolph takes over the school and Miss Minchin is reduced to working as a chimney sweep.
• In the film, it is implied that Sara's father has adopted Becky, instead of her becoming Sara's personal attendant like in the book.

Reception

Despite its failure at the box office, A Little Princess was critically acclaimed; based on 32 reviews As of 2012 it holds a 97% 'Fresh' rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with the consensus, "Alfonso Cuarón adapts Frances Hodgson Burnett's novel with a keen sense of magic realism, vividly recreating the world of childhood as seen through the characters."

Janet Maslin called the film "a bright, beautiful and enchantingly childlike vision", one that "draw[s] its audience into the wittily heightened reality of a fairy tale" and "takes enough liberties to re-invent rather than embalm Miss Burnett's assiduously beloved story." She concludes:

"From the huge head of an Indian deity, used as a place where stories are told and children play, to the agile way a tear drips from Sara's eye to a letter read by her father in the rain, A Little Princess has been conceived, staged and edited with special grace. Less an actors' film than a series of elaborate tableaux, it has a visual eloquence that extends well beyond the limits of its story. To see Sara whirling ecstatically in her attic room on a snowy night, exulting in the feelings summoned by an evocative sight in a nearby window, is to know just how stirringly lovely a children's film can be."

Rita Kempley of The Washington Post called the film Cuarón's "dazzling North American debut" and wrote it "exquisitely re-creates the ephemeral world of childhood, an enchanted kingdom where everything, even make-believe, seems possible....Unlike most distaff mythology, the film does not concern the heroine's sexual awakening; it's more like the typical hero's journey described by scholar Joseph Campbell. Sarah, the adored and pampered child of a wealthy British widower, must pass a series of tests, thereby discovering her inner strengths."

Awards

Awards
Year	Award	Category	Result
1995	Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award	Best Music Best Production Design Best Picture (2nd place) New Generation Award (Alfonso Cuarón)	Won
1996	Academy Award	Best Art Direction and Set Decoration Best Cinematography	Nominated
	Young Artist Award	Best Family Feature - Drama Best Young Leading Actress - Feature Film (Vanessa Lee Chester) Best Young Leading Actress - Feature Film (Liesel Matthews)	Nominated

Home video release

A Little Princess was first released to home video in August 1995.

Soundtrack

A Little Princess
Film score by Patrick Doyle
Released	May 9, 1995
Length	49:57
Label	Varèse Sarabande
Patrick Doyle chronology
Exit to Eden 1994 A Little Princess 1995 Sense and Sensibility 1995

All of the tracks were composed by Patrick Doyle. Three of the tracks feature soloists. The "String Quintet in C major Perger 108, MH 187" by Michael Haydn is also used in the film. This film also features the New London Children's Choir.

1. Ramayana: A Morning Raga (2:03)
2. Children Running (0:53)
3. Cristina Elisa Waltz (3:03)
4. The Miss Minchin School for Girls (1:40)
5. Knowing You by Heart (2:32)
6. Breakfast (0:55)
7. Letter to Papa (1:38)
8. Angel Wings (1:07)
9. False Hope (2:05)
10. The Trenches (1:00)
11. Crewe and the Soldier (1:22)
12. Alone (1:19)
13. The Attic (2:00)
14. On Another's Sorrow — Catherine Hopper (1:16)
15. The Shawl (0:54)
16. Tyger Tyger (0:32)
17. Compassion (0:37)
18. For the Princess (1:38)
19. Kindle My Heart — Abigail Doyle (the daughter of the composer) (3:00)
20. The Locket Hunt (3:02)
21. Midnight Tiptoe (1:13)
22. I Am A Princess (1:14)
23. Just Make Believe (1:33)
24. Touched by an Angel (1:43)
25. Emilia Elopes (1:38)
26. The Escape (2:58)
27. Papa! (2:32)
28. The Goodbye — Liesel Matthews (4:19)

See also

• List of book-based war films (1898–1926 wars)

External links

• A Little Princess at the Internet Movie Database
• A Little Princess at AllRovi
• A Little Princess at Rotten Tomatoes
• A Little Princess at Metacritic