| Beautiful film with clear references to the classic Cinderella story Maria a maid since years for this rich family in Paris, is forcefully asked to attend as a 14th guest at Anne's dinner party because she thinks that 13 is an unlucky number. Maria brings life to the dinner table and literally makes people laugh and brings humanity to the table by cutting the little boy's meat while the rest of the table is just concerned with their own minds. Anne gets jealous and she orders maid Maria to leave the dinner, just before midnight. We see a clock behind Maria: it's a minute to <more> midnight. As she goes up the stairs you can hear the clock strike 12. She takes her shoes off, carries them in her hand and goes up the stairs to her room. Where the Cinderella story has Cinderella go running down the stairs leaving one behind in a hurry. Maria though doesn't leave a shoe behind for her dream 'prince'. And she isn't running, she is calm and collected. She carries both her glittery rainbow coloured shoes, which are truly her own the clothes on her body are borrowed from Anne , up to her room. Where in the Cinderella story the shoes symbolise the shared feelings of love between two lovers: the prince with the glass slipper in his hands, holds literally his love for Cinderella in his hands and tries to find the matching love of Cinderella for him, symbolised by the other shoe. So, in this film we can already assume that the true love and romance is only in the maid's hands: she carries the matching pair of shoes in her own hands. Only she owns the shoes, only she owns that love they symbolise. While we know the man involved falls for this mysterious woman, which Maria is to him because he thinks she has rich royal relatives, whispered to him by Steven, something Maria doesn't know. The glittery rainbow shoes of this contemporary modern slave, and Spanish immigrant the words slave and Spanish immigrant are literally mentioned in the film indicate that skies are blue over the rainbow. The rainbows reference the famous song sung by Judy Garland in The Wizard of OZ: 'Somewhere over the Rainbow'. So we could know beforehand that true love is only felt by her: She believes in blue skies beyond rainbows where her dreams will come true. A strength only she seems to possess. All the rich people she worked for and interacted with are all suffering in their love lives and are not capable to really feel lyrically even the composer at the dinner table is not able to communicate verbally with people and the children are not treated like kids and can not dream of rainbows giving access to blue skies where dreams really do come true. Perhaps Steven can, the stepson of Anne who eventually will write Maria's story in a manuscript carrying the title: 'The Maid'. At the end of the movie Steven is told by David, Maria's faux lover and academic by profession that he should create a happy ending for the book he's writing. 'People love happy endings', he says. Steven looks op to the sky and says something like: 'Yes, people'. We know by now that the rich don't go for happy endings, that's not what they are interested in, they are just interested in money, politics and keeping up appearances. The people Steven has in his mind are people like Maria. The believe in a happy outcome of a hard lived life is what keeps people like Maria going, which make them survive the modern slavery they are forced into by life's cruel ways. She choses for herself in the end. She frees herself from hypocrisy, she frees herself from the family she gave her life and emotions to for many years. Maria knows what colour underwear they are wearing, when they are having sex and when they are throwing up. She gave all her humanity to them to finally just be patronised by those exact same people. Maria is strong and free and seeing the glance in her eyes we the viewer are able to think she'll continue to go towards that rainbow: 'Somewhere over the rainbow Way up high And the dreams that you dream of Once in a lullaby Somewhere over the rainbow Bluebirds fly And the dreams that you dream of Dreams really do come true Someday, I wish upon a star Wake up where the clouds are far behind me Where trouble melts like lemon drops High above the chimney top That's where you'll find me Somewhere over the rainbow Bluebirds fly And the dreams that you dare to Oh why, oh why can't I? Well, I see trees of green and red roses too I'll watch them bloom for me and you And I think to myself What a wonderful world Well, I see skies of blue and I see clouds of white And the brightness of day I like the dark And I think to myself what a wonderful world The colors of the rainbow so pretty in the sky And also on the faces of people passing by I see friends shaking hands saying How do you do? They're really saying I, I love you I hear babies cry and I watch them grow They'll learn much more then we'll know And I think to myself what a wonderful world World Someday I wish upon a star Wake up where the clouds are far behind me Where trouble melts like lemon drops High above the chimney top That's where you'll find me Oh, somewhere over the rainbow Way up high And the dreams that you dare to Why oh, why can't I?' <less> |
