A Little Princess **** (1995, Liesel Matthews, Eleanor Bron, Liam Cunningham) – Classic Movie Review 845

Director Alfonso Cuarôn’s 1995 movie is a marvellous remake of the 1911 classic novel A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett (the author of Little Lord Fauntleroy and The Secret Garden) and the beloved 1939 Shirley Temple film version The Little Princess.

It was Oscar nominated for Best Cinematography (Emmanuel Lubezki) and Best Art Direction-Set Decoration (Bo Welch for production design and Cheryl Carasik for set decoration). Judianna Makovsky’s costume design and Patrick Doyle’s music are also outstanding in a highly crafted piece of work.

This time, Liesel Matthews delightfully plays the little girl Sara Crewe, whose British army captain dad (Liam Cunningham) is despatched to fight in the First World War, while she is sent to martinet Miss Minchin (Eleanor Bron)’s New York boarding school, where she is forced to be a servant. Her father goes missing and is presumed dead.

This is a sweet and magical children’s movie, beautifully performed and exquisitely realized by director Cuarôn, who went on to make Great Expectations in 1998, the third Harry Potter movie (Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban) in 2004 and Gravity in 2013.

It is Cuarôn’s personal favourite of his movies. ‘I am proud of it,’ he says in 2014. ‘And the chimney sweep in the film is my son Jonas, who wrote Gravity with me.’

Also in the cast are Rusty Schwimmer, Arthur Mallet, Vanessa Lee Chester, Errol Sitahal, Heather DeLoach, Taylor Fry, Darcie Bradford, Rachel Bella, Alexandra Rea-Baum, Camilla Belle, Lauren Blumenfeld, Kelsey Mulrooney, Kaitlin Cullum, Alison Moir, Lomax Study, Vincent Schiavelli and Time Winters.

It is written by Richard LaGravenese and Elizabeth Chandler.

The Secret Garden was filmed in in 1919, 1949, for TV in 1987 and again in 1993 as The Secret Garden with Kate Maberly, John Lynch and Maggie Smith.

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© Derek Winnert 2014 Classic Film Review 845 derekwinnert.com

Frances Hodgson Burnett, the author of Little Lord Fauntleroy and The Secret Garden.