Why 3nfc is set in winter
No snow around Moritzburg Castle
Shooting in Bohemia - at first no snow, later too
much of it
Scenery alienates Watercastle Švihov
Ballet in Babelsberg shot with German TV-dancers
No animal transport across Czech-German border
The costumes
Tricks and cheats
On the new Czech DVD you can find a long even if Czech interview with director Václav Vorlíček (translated to German by Renata Susewind, translated from German to "English" by me, so I hope, everything is still correct...), in which he among other things tells us, how he got the idea to let the fairytale play in wintertime and what problems the crew had to face when realising this project.
To set the film in winter at all has been Vorlíčeks idea and how this came is the following story: One day a scrpit was given to Vorlíček which he liked well. He decided quite quickly to settle the story in renaissance therefore the film would not be the cheapest one. Appropriate costumes and sets were needed and Vorlíček didn't want to shoot around the worst corner. So he asked Ot Hofman, leader of the production of childrens'- and youth-films, who had good contacts to DEFA (the big Eastern German film company), if he could ask someone in the GDR. And in fact DEFA wanted to share the production and declared that they would provide one million Ostmark. Responsibles of both teams met to negotiate further conditions of the cooperation which Vorlíček was not really interested in, because he already knew, he got the money.
Actually the film was planned for springtime, Cinderella was to ride across blooming meadows. Bus one member of DEFA claimed, that his men had to be employed in winter, because for spring and summer he already had enough shooting dates. It was suggested to shoot the interior in Babelsberg filmstudios (near Berlin) in December and January 1972 and after two or three months when spring had come the exterior could be shot. But this didn't suit the men of Barrandov (the Czech filmstudio) who then wouldt have had their people out of work for about two months.
Meanwhile Vorlíček was daydreaming. One of Breughel's winter pictures came to his mind, he had seen on an exhibition in Vienna. Vorlíček saw the whole scene before his inner eye, people iceskating in the back, shepherds in the front and a lot of other people, young and old, and suddenly he said: "Gentlemen, I'd like to shoot the whole film completely during winter." The other men looked rather taken aback, but finally it was done this way. The script was rewritten for wintertime, which didn't really disturb, and they agreed, that at first they would shoot in Germany and after that cast and crew would go back to Czechoslowakia immediately to shoot the rest.
No snow around Moritzburg Castle
Furthermore
Vorlíček tells ironically, that for him having this brilliant idea to
shoot everything in the snow, the shooting became a mere catastrophe.
In winter 1972/73 from Baltic to the Black Sea not one snowflake fell. Only in the Alpes some snow was lying, but neglecting that they couldn't go there for political reasons, it would have been too far away and too high. So after having pasted "snow" over the studio-windows, the team went to Moritzburg. The lake there was frozen and the castle slightly snowy, yet the landscape wasn't white but red-black-brown, definitely not wintry. In the
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| Artificial
snow in the foreground |
This scene should be followed by a scene which had to be shot in the Bohemian Forest (the conversation within which the king condemns his son to marry). The carriages had to go through the forest for some metres, but there also was no snow, so again artificial snow had to be used. Vorlíček complains about the quality of the German artificial snow. The Czech one stuck to the pavement and could hardly be removed, but the German "snow" was made from some sort of fishmeal, stank awfully and disappeared chemically over nigth. Looking back the director criticizes, the Czech did at least not spoil the environment as much as the Germans did.
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| There was real snow in Bohemia. |
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| The trees have been covered by "snow" only up to about 8 feet, on the castel roofs there is no snow at all. |
Shooting in Bohemia - at first no snow, later too much of it
Near
Klatovy at the Czech shooting places as well there was no snow at first
and again artificial snow covered everything. 
The
chosen exterior sets partly could no longer be used under such circumstances.
On the third day Vorlíček received the news that it was snowing in the
Bohemian Forest. He borrowed Vladimír
Menšík's car and drove towards Zelezna Ruda (near the Bavarian border).
After some 25 kilometers the car got stuck in the snow and Vorlíček
hardly managed his way back. Within the next few days whole featherbeds
came down, as the director remembers, it was almost too much snow.
So
for this situation, too, new locations had to be found and in the forest
the whole crew from director to lighting technician had to step down the
snow until all shoes were dripping wet. You can see, that the actors'
ways have been freed from snow and trampled down quite well, especially
while the princes follow Cinderella through the woods. Of course the cameraman
had to be careful not to get the tamped snow before his lense too obviously.
Still the crew was able to capture a beautiful winter atmosphere. Later
it began to thaw, the snow was dripping from the trees and it even started
raining. Alltogether, so Vorlíček says, they had much fun with the snow
that year.
Daniela Hlaváčová descibes how the actors coped with this situation in her interview with the Czech magazine "Televize".
Quite striking, from my point of view, the weather-problems occur during the (official) hunting contest. in rapid succession dim weather alternates with snowfall and sunshine.
Scenery alienates Watercastle Švihov
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While using only some bags of artificial snow in Moritzburg, in Švihov the craftsmen built and paneled like mad. If you visit the watercastle near Klatovy today, you will hardly recognize the stepmother's manor. For example the barn doors fitted out with gothic arches 30 years ago. Or the outer wall of a building that went to ruin long ago onto which a wooden balcony was fixed for the film. Here you can read up, what you should look at when visiting Švihov, about 50 km directly south of Plzén (city of the famous Czech beer!) |
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One of the most extreme visual tricks is the paper wall which makes the
distance between door and tower appear a lot shorter, than it actually
is...
Ballet in Babelsberg shot with German TV-dancers
The interior of the royal castle has been shot in Babelsberg. You can see that when comparing the windows: The dancehall's windows look from the inner side slightly vaulted. Such windows cannot be found on Castle Moritzburg.
But now it is clear, why Cinderella from the outside breathes onto another windowpane to get a peephole, than you can see from inside (great discovery, Carsten!).
Outside you see: She takes a windowpane near the middle beam. Inside you see her looking through aone near the frame. Supposedly the crew wanted to be sure, that Cinderellas eye can be seen beside king and queen (resp. the jester standing next to the king). Nicola told me, that in those days the film had to be processed, so that it was quite impossible to watch it during shooting. This may have led to this slight mistake.
Daniela Hlaváčová reports on her journey to the shooting in the GDR. A large part of the ball guests are German (among others the GDR TV-ballet is said to have done the dancing performances). Václav Vorlíček tells, that a lot of dancers were needed who came from East-Berlin. Since Babelsberg is situated some 40 km southwest from Berlin, they had to get up very early in the morning to go around West-Berlin and reach the studio. Therefore the dancers had to rise at three o'clock and got home not till twelve at night, Vorlíček narrates.
You can watch some rather funny scenes during the ball - of course only if you manage to take your eyes off the prince and the lovely cinderella ;-) Those scenes naturally only work in the flowing pictures. So next time you insert your DVD you can try and keep an eye on the background:
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| Cinderella waits in front of the door of the ballroom until the waiter has received his slap (she does not wait seen from inside the ballroom). | This gentleman seems to be quite surprised to see Cinderella. | This scene must have been repeated several times, because after the prince has asked Cinderella to dance... | ... this violet lady rolls her eyes, but accepts her fate and keeps on dancing. |
While
Cinderella asks her third question, in the background Kamil dances that
wrong, that both he and his partner have to laugh. His dancer finally
has to lay her hand onto his back to lead him.
No animal transport across Czech-German border
Already
in advance specified parts were assigned to certain horses Vorlíček
reports on the Czech
DVD. At first horses and actors had to get used to each other and
while shooting in Czechoslowakia this worked out fine. After shooting
a part of the film in Bohemia the animals had to be transported to the
German sets.
But entry was forbid for the horses, because just these days the infectious foot-and-mouth-disease had occured. In fact this illness had only affected some animals in the zoo, still the crew was not allowed to bring the horses. So the horsekeeper was sent to Germany with fotos of the animals to find suitable replacement in the GDR. Because of slight differences between the horses you can make out quite well now, which scenes have been shot in CSSR and which in GDR.
In
August 2003 I met Gerd Lilie. 30 years ago this man has provided those
horses, the filmteam couldn't get from the Saxonian National Stud. So
in all scenes playing around Moritzburg Castle you see mainly horses of
this still famous Stud. The four white horses of the royal coach and Cinderella's
Jurasek Mr. Lilie got from a friend in Mittweida. Mr. Lilie himself rides
one of the two front horses in this white four-horse-team.
All
scenes in Jurašek's stable have been shot in a stable of Saxonian National
Stud. For that purpose the crew have built some provisional horse boxes,
Mr. Lilie told me. Today the stabling is freshly done up and reshaped,
so that nothing remains of the glorious days of DEFA-production.
Costumes in Barrandov Costumes' Fund
In
the summer of 2003 using few Czech words as well as hands and feet I was
very lucky to be allowed to admire Cinderellas weddingdress and her ballgown.
The Czech speaking lady of Barrandov Costumes' Fund was so very nice to
hold the precious pieces in front of my cheap camera. Then she pulled
out Little Rosie's gown and showed a fat lady wirth her hands to make
me understand, who wore this dress.
In 2004 I prepared myself better and made a dater per email with the
Costumes' Fund. I knew, that they stored at least some of the ladies'
costumes, but they had told me, too, that a lot of costumes were in
Germany,
in Babelsberg near Berlin (and in Babelsberg people hadn't been as friendly
to me on the telephone, as the Czech have always been). Back at home
comparing DVD with my three fotographs, I had seen, that the ballgown,
they had presented me, was not the one, Libuše wore in the film. So
I had to return. As last time the ladies were very nice. As my English-speaking
email-contact (in fact she was only the translator of the fund) realised,
that we came from Germany, she was happy, because one of the leaders
of the department was an older lady, who spoke German. For the next
two hours she lead us through the fund - oh boy, that was great!
But
one after another. First we were brought into the cellar, where the
ladies' costumes are stored according to style and time period. A doll
had the ballgown and pink coat on and behind her hung the gown of Little
Rosie. Some costumes of other films, Dora's ballgown among them, marked
with paper sheets hung on a metal bar. These were reserved and would
be lend out the other day, the staff explained. We looked at each other
and couldn't grap it. Lend out? To whom? last Tuesday German Television
had been there and got costumes - some of 3gfc - for a childrens' programme.
Someone else had hired these for a mask. What? Those holy pieces worn
by HER can be lend out by anyone??? Unbelievable but true, sadly: For
a fee of about 40 Euros you can lend any costume. Lucky Mrs. Šafránková
is maximum an 8, not many women will fit into her old gowns, and above
that you have to give several thousands of Czech Crowns as a safety,
the more sophisticated the dress, the higher the amount. But alas. We
were stunned.
The
Ladies of the fund had already started lookign after some gown, that
would fit me. With a lot of pulling and dragging I was put into Dora's
balldress. No wonder the beautiful dresses look more than worn today.
We also asked about Cinderella's ballgown and were allowed to have some
closer looks. A fan's heart starts bleeding, when you see, how professionally
the pieces are handled, but of course the thousands of costumes are
only means of production to the people of Barrandov, and if lending
them earns some money, it's OK.
Sadly
all accesoire was missing, e.g. the drags of ball- and wedding-dress.
On several occasions I asked what would happen, if someone would not
return a gown, but got no real answer. They only said, the dresses would
not be sold and had to be given back anyway.
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| front |
Inside the skirt's drag |
inside under the arms |
We started asking ourselves, if these could really be the original costumes or if they had made new ones for lending. The ballgown on the doll was obvoiusly not the one, Cinderlla had worn in the film. But we were told, that these were the original pieces, but sometimes a gown was manufactured twice in case the first one would be destroyed during shooting. Did they do this with the ballgown? Yes. Do you have the one from the film, too? Yes, here. And some metres to our right The One was pulled out. And there it was, the original filmcostume. You can recognize it from the quite big paisley pattern.
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| original |
film |
spare gown |
Both of the ladies who showed the costumes to us and laid them in a comfortable and good looking manner, when they finally recognized that we had come for taking some fotographs, mentioned something of mens' costumes somewhere else in the building. We were wondering: They were in Prague? Last year when we asked our way through the fund, we had understood, that all mens' costumes were in Berlin. But we had only communicated by hands and feet, then. We cautionally asked if there was some time left to show us. The answer was: No problem. Well, I never experienced something like that. We held up the whole business, were only asking silly questions and wanted to take pictures of every tiny bit. But all were extremely friendly and helpful, we were embarassed.
When
we entered the mens' section two floors above, the prince's huntig hat
catched our eyes first. They guided us to the back, where renaissance-style
costumes hung, marked with paper telling the title and year of the film
and giving the numbers ob all costumes, belonging to this film. And
what details we could see now! Or did you ever recognize, that the prince's
dreadful golden outfit has a blue pattern? And how many gowns the prince
and his friend had! Sometime, we didn't even remember exactly, what
costume we were looking at. But what are screenshots good for...
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We
also asked about the shoes and were allowed to glance into the cupboards.
Cinderella's ballshoes stood directly in front of us. We had seen the
man, who manufactured them earlier in German TV (it was a short film
about Prague within the news). He was on holidays, so we could not ask
him. The pumps were originals from the film, too. They looked worn and
were dirty.
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There is a flat pair and one higher and smaller shoe. The flat ones were worn by Libuše while dancing or riding, the higher one is the one, she looses, the prince finds and holds in his hand while looking for Cinderella. It is also the one, Cinderella puts out and holds in her hand when she goes down the steps to her horse. For every closeup, this more beautiful and even smaller shoe was taken. The prince finally fits it to cinderella's foot, but in total you can see, that she is actually wearing it, but the flat one.
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left foot |
right foot, close | ||||
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rigth foot, total, you recognize the flat shoe by the lenght
of his tread and the heel |
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First of all le's get something straight: It goes without saying, that "Three Gifts for Cinderella" is perfect. It is the most beautiful, greatest and best film of the 20th. century. All of us admire, love, even worship it! Even if at some spot or another there have some tiny little tricks been done.
Just doubled once!
On
the new
Czech DVD Václav Vorlíček reports: "In contrast to Šafránková,
who had great experience in horseriding Pavel Trávníček, Vítěszlav Jandák
and Jaroslav Drbohlav didn't have any idea at all. So all of the three
princes" 
got
a crash-course. They approached it with great enthusiasm and did the
riding scenes quite well. The only occasion Libuše Šafránková was replaced
by a stuntwoman is the jump over a trunk. If the laeding actress had
broken herself a leg or the hip, it would have been a catastrophy for
the film. But she did other scenes well, even the one scene where she
steals the prince's horse. She did everything excellently.
Small tricks
Sometimes only 10pt tricks were needed to round off the image ...
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Pigeon backwards It would have been unnatural, if the pigeons had put back the good peas into the bowl, wouldn'd it? |
Revisible short-haired hairstyle Does look better, if you want to pass as a huntsman. |
One more branch does no harm. So the arrow surely will hit a cone. |
Big tricks
I keep on looking for the thread on which the owl is swung around near the end of the film. The thread helping to "shoot" the arrow from the prince's hand, I have found...
And always a pleasure: The apaerance of the balldress from the thrown second magic nut.
And other things we saw ...
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Pick them up! Your Majesty lost his arrows while throwing snowballs. |
Mole? Staff with fingernails that well-groomed is suspect. |
Allez hopp! Very shortly the animal trainer's glove can be seen when he pushes the owl onto the branch. |
Warm below At least for the exterior closeups Libuše should not be cold. |
Despite or perhaps just because of these little cheats "Three Gifts for Cinderella" is one of the moste loveable films of the past century. How can you dare staring at the PC-screen so long? Go, insert the DVD or VHS and watch it!