La Gatta Cenerentola｜Cinderella｜灰姑娘 灰燼姑娘 貓姑娘 仙杜瑞拉 仙履奇緣【Giambattista Basile｜AI Cinematic Fairy Tale】

Recently, while making the Basile version of Cinderella, I discovered that the story’s real name is The Cat Cinderella (La Gatta Cenerentola). This is one of the earliest literary versions of the Cinderella story in Europe. The basic structure is: a father marries a new wife, his biological daughter begins to suffer abuse, and the father barely does anything about it. What’s interesting is that this story is more than five hundred years old, yet some of its scenes are still so familiar today that they are almost unsettling. Times keep changing, but human nature doesn’t seem to have changed much. It really seems that, no matter what kind of history we look at, the same patterns keep repeating themselves. Basile’s original fairy tale is actually very short, so when adapting it into a film, I had to fill in some of the story’s logic. For example, when Zezolla kills her first stepmother, I had Zezolla explain what happened first, at least clearing herself of suspicion. After all, she was the only biological child in the household, while her father was a prince who could, in a sense, be considered a very powerful feudal nobleman. If it were discovered that his own daughter had killed her stepmother, it is quite possible that he would have covered it up. The second part that needed to be filled in was what happened after the second stepmother, who had originally been the governess, brought her six daughters into the household. The original story simply says that because of these six daughters, the father gradually stopped loving Zezolla. This actually feels very inconsistent with ordinary human emotions and ethics, so in my adaptation, I made the process in between more complete: perhaps the woman closest to him was constantly turning him against his own daughter, gradually changing his attitude toward her. This kind of thing is actually still very common today. Modern society even has a tactic known as “spoiling someone to ruin them”—appearing to treat a child very well, while actually raising them to become spoiled and incapable, so that one’s own children can eventually receive more resources, even inheriting the family fortune. This kind of plot appears in many dramas, but honestly, it is not uncommon in real life either. I think the heroine in this version is actually a more “scheming” type. After all, she really did kill her first stepmother. In the Perrault and Grimm versions, the heroine becomes the completely gentle, kind, helpless Cinderella who is bullied by others. But in Basile’s version, Zezolla actually has a strong sense of agency. However, while making the film, I also felt that there was something a little strange here. She clearly still had opportunities to speak with her father, yet later, when she was being bullied by her stepmother and six stepsisters—seven people in total—she barely defended herself at all. Of course, it may also be because she was facing seven people. If she had fought back directly, she might have been the first one to suffer. So when developing her character, I had her choose to endure more in the earlier part of the story rather than constantly fighting back. I think this may be why the later Perrault and Grimm versions both removed the part where she kills her first stepmother. Once that part is kept, it becomes much harder to portray Cinderella as a completely gentle, kind, helpless girl who is simply bullied by others. The character’s own logic becomes much more complicated. This reflection has become too long and exceeds the amount of text I can put in the video description, so I’ll share the rest in the first comment. So if you’ve made it this far and feel like something is missing from the reflection, don’t worry—I’ll continue the rest in the comments section. 最近製作了巴西萊版本的《灰姑娘》，才發現這個故事真正的名字是《貓姑娘》（La Gatta Cenerentola）。 這算是歐洲最早的文學版灰姑娘故事之一。基本結構是：父親娶了新的妻子，親生女兒開始受到虐待，而父親幾乎對這一切不聞不問。 有趣的是，這個故事距今已經超過五百年了，裡面的一些情節放到現在，居然還是熟悉得讓人有點毛骨悚然。時代一直在變，但人性似乎沒有變多少。果然，不管是哪一種類型的歷史，都好像一直在不斷重演。 巴西萊的原著童話其實寫得非常短，所以在製作成電影的時候，我必須補足一些故事邏輯。 例如第一任繼母被澤佐拉害死的時候，我讓澤佐拉先說明事情的經過，至少先把自己的嫌疑洗清。畢竟當時家裡只有她是唯一的親生女兒，而她的父親又是一位王子，某種程度上可以理解成一位非常有權勢的大領主貴族。如果真的被發現是自己的女兒殺了繼母，這件事情很可能就會被掩蓋下來。 第二個需要補足的地方，是第二任繼母，也就是原本的家庭教師，把自己藏起來的六個女兒帶進家門之後。 原著直接寫到，父親因為這六個女兒的關係，漸漸不再疼愛澤佐拉。 這一點其實很不符合一般人的倫理與情感，所以在改編時，就把中間的過程更完整一些：很可能是枕邊人不斷在父親身邊挑撥離間，才讓他改變了對親生女兒的態度。這種事情到了現代，其實還是非常常見。 甚至現代還多了一種手段叫「捧殺」——表面上對孩子很好，實際上卻把對方養得驕縱、無能，最後讓自己的孩子取得更多資源，甚至把家產全部留給自己的孩子。 很多戲劇裡都會出現這種劇情，但說真的，現實人生裡也一點都不少。 我覺得這個版本的女主角，其實算是比較「腹黑」的類型。 畢竟她真的把第一任繼母弄死了。 佩羅版本與格林版本，女主角就完全變成了柔弱、善良、任人欺負的灰姑娘；但在巴西萊這個版本裡，澤佐拉其實有很強的主動性。 不過在製作的時候也覺得，這裡有一點奇怪。 因為她明明還有機會跟父親說話，卻在後來被繼母與六個繼姊欺負時，幾乎完全沒有為自己辯解。 當然，也有可能是因為她面對的是繼母與六個繼姊，七個人。如果真的硬碰硬，最先完蛋的就是她自己。在角色揣摩上，我讓她前期更多選擇隱忍，而不是一直反抗。 我覺得，這可能是為什麼後來的佩羅版本與格林版本，都把她殺害第一任繼母的情節刪掉了。 一旦保留這段，灰姑娘就很難再被塑造成一個完全柔弱、溫柔、善良、任人欺負的女孩。這個人物本身的邏輯，就會變得複雜很多。 這篇心得太長，超過影片資訊欄可以放的長度，我會把剩下的內容放在第一則留言裡分享。所以如果你看到這裡，卻覺得心得好像少了一部分，不用擔心，我會把剩下的內容補在留言區。