The familiar fairy tale stars Josette Day as Belle, the only decent daughter of a father (Marcel Andre) who has recently lost the entire family fortune at sea. On a hot tip that one of his ships may have survived, Belle's father sets off on a journey to recover some of the fortune. When asked what she wants him to bring back for her, Belle simply requests a rose. Unfortunately, Belle's father's mission is unsuccessful, and upon getting lost in the woods, he seeks refuge in a creepy, seemingly abandoned castle, and picks The Wrong Rose for Belle.
Turns out, the castle and the rose belong to The Beast! This is Jean Marais in some pretty sweet makeup for the time, even featuring articulated ears in some scenes! He can fully emote, even with the head of a lion, thanks to his visible eyes and mouth.
Anyway, long story short (too late), Belle agrees to take her father's place and go off to live with the Beast FOREVER. The Beast, in turn, asks her to marry him every single day. At first they don't get along, then she starts to love the Beast, eventually the Beast lets her return home as long as she promises to come back... and so on.
The movie takes place in an interesting dream world where half the scenes are shot in fairly realistic location settings and the other half are shot in the Beast's fantastical castle, complete with living statues, eyes peering out of the walls, and living arms that hold candelabras. The film has touches of horror, and of course lots of romance, and even some comedy. It's definitely a fairy tale, but not really for kids. They might enjoy the surface level, but pretty much all of the symbolism would be lost on them. To be honest, the symbolism was probably lost on me, also, but I do believe that kind of thing enriches a movie even if you're not fully conscious of it. Actually, that kind of thing probably works better the less conscious of it you are.
If I had to point out the biggest strength of the movie, I'd say it's Jean Marais as The Beast. Despite what could have been a clunky costume, Marais is able to get a full performance across, and even does double duty as Belle's greedy would-be suitor back in town, Avenant.
The biggest weakness of the flick, I think, is the portrayal of Belle. This isn't the fault of Day, and I guess you could even say if all Cocteau is interested in is symbolism, it's not really his fault either. Still, as far as a traditional narrative is concerned, Disney's more modern version of Belle is preferable as a three dimensional character who has more going on than simply being "pure of heart."
No comments:
Post a Comment