Visionary filmmaker and poet Jean Cocteau responded to the terrors and creative constraints of occupied France with this elaborately realized take on the classic fairy tale BEAUTY AND THE BEAST. Suggested by his longtime collaborator and muse, French actor Jean Marais, the cinematic version of the fable first penned by Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont became Cocteau's most celebrated film. Cocteau renders the story of a gentlehearted beast in love with a simple and beautiful girl in the style of the luminous paintings of Dutch master Vermeer. From the quaint and humorous scenes of Beauty's happy home to the ominous surreal spectacle of the Beast's enchanted estate, Cocteau transforms the simple tale of tragic love into a surreal vision of death, desire, and beauty. Marais is chilling as the lonely and tormented beast, projecting a wounded love for the glacial yet endearing Beauty (Josette Day), whose simple request for a rose from her father brings tragedy crashing down on her whole family. Cocteau expands upon the cinematic inventiveness first seen in his masterpiece BLOOD OF A POET with mirrors made of water, living statues, and candelabras fashioned from living arms, transforming a children's fable into a complex and radiant cinematic classic.
DVD Features
Region 1 Keep Case Full Frame - 1.33 Audio: Dolby Digital 5.1 - English Additional Release Material: Featurette: Film Restoration Demonstration Interviews: Henri Alekan - Cinematographer Audio Commentary: 1. Arthur Knight - Film Historian 2. Christopher Frayling - Cultural Historian Trailers: 1. Original Theatrical Trailer 2. 1995 Restoration Trailer Text/Photo Galleries: Production Notes Stills/Photos Fable: 1. English Translation of Original Leprinsce de Beaumont Fable
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This French classic goes far beyond the mere retelling of the well-known fairy tale. Its eerie visual beauty and surrealistic atmosphere mark it as a genuine original. Beauty And The Beast is one of... Read the whole review at MatchFlick
Posted on February 16, 2007
Reviewed by: Ezra
Beauty and the Beast has much in common with Citizen Kane, both thematically and visually. The Beast is not unlike Charles Foster Kane in that they are both powerful men who live in isolation, in... Read the whole review at MatchFlick
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Posted on February 16, 2007
