I caught this on a Saturday morning movie slot on my television, and was amazed and appalled by the blatant lifting of almost all the design elements from Cocteau's Beauty and the Beast. Or rather, Golan-Globus' attempt to lift them. Christian Berard did the sets and costumes for the 1947 French classic version of the fairy tale, and no one could touch it for richness of nuance and detail. As a costumer by trade I can still say they are some of the best costumes I've ever seen...maybe not always completely period accurate, but when they deviate from period, it's usually for very wonderful effect. Just mesmerizing. And it makes me a bit mad that the producers of the G/G version tried to simply make a colorized version of it, down to the make-up on the Beast, some of Beauty's hairstyles, the arms in the hallway holding the lamps and even quite a number of the camera angles. But, I guess, if something works, Hollywood will try to copy it, plagiarism or not.
Review of Beauty and the Beast
