Odd, surreal, inventive, funny, maddening, romantic and silly...BEAUTY AND THE BEAST is a viewing experience like no other. It's also difficult to describe and I imagine each person seeing it will have different strong reactions to it. But it SHOULD be seen by anyone with a love of film and of art.
It tells the basically familiar story of BEAUTY AND THE BEAST (if you're a fan of the Disney movie, you can get a lot of amusement just looking for moments in this film that clearly inspired the animated version), but the whole approach is skewed and almost cartoonish. It's as though the film is made with children in mind, yet as it goes along, it becomes more and more adult. The lovely Belle in this telling is almost like Cinderella. She cooks and cleans while her two sisters preen and order her about and are basically the step-sisters from CINDERELLA. She also has a brother who is just a step above the village idiot, and there is his best friend, who has a pretty serious crush on Belle. And then there is Belle's beloved father...he's in the import/export business, and his business is in ruins because all his ships have disappeared. Frankly, Belle's father doesn't have many redeeming qualities, and it's hard to understand Belle's unthinking, unwavering devotion to him. I know, I know...he's her father. But she acts as though he is a saint. He heads out on a business trip and on his return, stumbles across a mysterious estate in the middle of the forest. And he basically breaks in, helps himself to food and pokes around the place like he owns it. (Here is one of many examples where people in this film don't behave in believable ways. Such is often the case in fairy tales when you think about them, but in a film, it just comes across as rude, if not criminal. When dad takes a rose from a tree for his daughter...the Beast is so outraged, he makes an appearance. He loves his roses above all else, and while he was seemingly content to see dad ransack his place, stealing a rose was an intolerable insult.
Dad only saves his own hide by promising to send his beloved daughter Belle to the Beast's estate in exchange. Again, dad doesn't seem too honorable. So Belle goes to live with the Beast, and the two slowly grow closer and closer, although Belle is still tormented by her longing to see her father, who has fallen ill. The conversations between the two title characters are often odd. Beast is clearly tormented, both by personal demons, but also be loneliness, which Belle has finally relieved somewhat. Does he love her, or does he love the relief she brings? She seems drawn to him too, yet often, she just wanders around the estate, looking frankly dazed and confused. It's a difficult relationship to make sense of. In fact, the motivations of most of the characters in the film are murky.
And yet, it all comes together in a dreamlike way. The surface silliness and cartoonish behaviors somehow still gel into a compelling exploration of obsession and the way love can tear one between the urge to be selfish and the inspiration to be generous with the object of desire. Beast wants Belle all for himself, yet he wants her to be happy, which means letting her return to her father. Belle is torn between the lure of home, and her generosity of spirit when she sees how deeply Beast needs her.
All of this can be seen as romantic and lovely...the manifestations of deep love. Yet there is a pretty deep sexual undercurrent that comes closer and closer to the surface as the film progresses. What started out as a clownish story turns into barely restrained passions. When Beast is clearly enthralled by Belle, he literally begins to smoke and he screams at her to close her bedroom door. The implication is that he is moments away from loosing control of himself and attacking her. A child watching this might think that she's in danger of being literally attached and eaten. An adult viewer knows that's not exactly what we're talking about here. And the looks Belle gives to the Beast show that she is more than passingly intrigued by the idea of being ravished. Their relationship is "wrong" (in a conventional sense) and yet they have a burning desire (literally, in the Beast's case).
Also worth the price of admission is the spectacular estate of the Beast. While there are few special effects as we would think of them, the film is full of magic. Candlesticks are held literally by human hands. Statues are alive. The whole set is full of surprises, and the net effect is truly one of having created another world in the midst of our more conventional one. Really cool stuff!
The ending of the film contains a remarkable, amusing twist and was just the final odd touch in an odd and strangely effective movie. BEAUTY AND THE BEAST is rightfully a classic, and a very singular piece of cinema.
Criterion's blu-ray is full of interesting extras. And if you like Philip Glass, you can listen to his score for the film instead of the original. I tried it for awhile and found it too distracting, but others will certainly relish it.
It tells the basically familiar story of BEAUTY AND THE BEAST (if you're a fan of the Disney movie, you can get a lot of amusement just looking for moments in this film that clearly inspired the animated version), but the whole approach is skewed and almost cartoonish. It's as though the film is made with children in mind, yet as it goes along, it becomes more and more adult. The lovely Belle in this telling is almost like Cinderella. She cooks and cleans while her two sisters preen and order her about and are basically the step-sisters from CINDERELLA. She also has a brother who is just a step above the village idiot, and there is his best friend, who has a pretty serious crush on Belle. And then there is Belle's beloved father...he's in the import/export business, and his business is in ruins because all his ships have disappeared. Frankly, Belle's father doesn't have many redeeming qualities, and it's hard to understand Belle's unthinking, unwavering devotion to him. I know, I know...he's her father. But she acts as though he is a saint. He heads out on a business trip and on his return, stumbles across a mysterious estate in the middle of the forest. And he basically breaks in, helps himself to food and pokes around the place like he owns it. (Here is one of many examples where people in this film don't behave in believable ways. Such is often the case in fairy tales when you think about them, but in a film, it just comes across as rude, if not criminal. When dad takes a rose from a tree for his daughter...the Beast is so outraged, he makes an appearance. He loves his roses above all else, and while he was seemingly content to see dad ransack his place, stealing a rose was an intolerable insult.
Dad only saves his own hide by promising to send his beloved daughter Belle to the Beast's estate in exchange. Again, dad doesn't seem too honorable. So Belle goes to live with the Beast, and the two slowly grow closer and closer, although Belle is still tormented by her longing to see her father, who has fallen ill. The conversations between the two title characters are often odd. Beast is clearly tormented, both by personal demons, but also be loneliness, which Belle has finally relieved somewhat. Does he love her, or does he love the relief she brings? She seems drawn to him too, yet often, she just wanders around the estate, looking frankly dazed and confused. It's a difficult relationship to make sense of. In fact, the motivations of most of the characters in the film are murky.
And yet, it all comes together in a dreamlike way. The surface silliness and cartoonish behaviors somehow still gel into a compelling exploration of obsession and the way love can tear one between the urge to be selfish and the inspiration to be generous with the object of desire. Beast wants Belle all for himself, yet he wants her to be happy, which means letting her return to her father. Belle is torn between the lure of home, and her generosity of spirit when she sees how deeply Beast needs her.
All of this can be seen as romantic and lovely...the manifestations of deep love. Yet there is a pretty deep sexual undercurrent that comes closer and closer to the surface as the film progresses. What started out as a clownish story turns into barely restrained passions. When Beast is clearly enthralled by Belle, he literally begins to smoke and he screams at her to close her bedroom door. The implication is that he is moments away from loosing control of himself and attacking her. A child watching this might think that she's in danger of being literally attached and eaten. An adult viewer knows that's not exactly what we're talking about here. And the looks Belle gives to the Beast show that she is more than passingly intrigued by the idea of being ravished. Their relationship is "wrong" (in a conventional sense) and yet they have a burning desire (literally, in the Beast's case).
Also worth the price of admission is the spectacular estate of the Beast. While there are few special effects as we would think of them, the film is full of magic. Candlesticks are held literally by human hands. Statues are alive. The whole set is full of surprises, and the net effect is truly one of having created another world in the midst of our more conventional one. Really cool stuff!
The ending of the film contains a remarkable, amusing twist and was just the final odd touch in an odd and strangely effective movie. BEAUTY AND THE BEAST is rightfully a classic, and a very singular piece of cinema.
Criterion's blu-ray is full of interesting extras. And if you like Philip Glass, you can listen to his score for the film instead of the original. I tried it for awhile and found it too distracting, but others will certainly relish it.