Customer Reviews

Beauty & the Beast

5 star:		(54)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Long before Disney ever got their grubby paws on it, Jean Cocteau made the ultimate adaptation of the classic French fairy tale "The Beauty and the Beast." And it was... well, magical. Cocteau's direction turned this simple story into a dreamy haze of haunting images, lush sets and luminous beauty, from the beginning to the eerie end.

The titiular beauty, Belle (Josette Day), works like a dog for her ne'er-do-well brother Ludovic and her snotty sisters. When their father was going home through the forest, he stumbles across an enchanted castle ruled by a cruel Beast (Jean Marais). When the father thoughtlessly plucks a single rose, the Beast gives him a choice -- he can die, or he can send one of his daughters.

Of course, Bella goes straight to the castle, and finds herself in a new world of magic, mystery and enchantment. She also begins falling in love with the Beast, despite his leonine appearance. But when she returns home for a visit, her siblings and her nasty suitor Avenant begin plotting to kill the Beast and destroy the life Belle has been given.

Floating candles, stone hands and faces that move, glittering jewels, magical mirrors, living statues, and a exquisitely sylvan palace filled with mist and light. This is a really haunting, beautiful movie that doesn't spare any visual impact that it can make -- and that quality makes the entire film feel like a delirious dream that you never want to wake up from.

Jean Cocteau's direction really elevates this simple story into a piece of art, especially since he makes such careful use of light, which makes everything in the castle look luminous. And he inserts many striking scenes, such as Belle and the Beast's wanderings in a sea of statues, and when he drinks water out of her hands, or when she sees him approaching from behind in a mirror.

Day is really astounding as Belle -- she's very sweet, kind of a doormat, and really seems like a girl who is too nice for her own good. Marais does a remarkably good job emoting with his eyes and voice, especially since the poor man could barely move his face -- when the camera zooms in on his eyes, you can see the smoldering emotions.

Jean Cocteau's exquisite "Beauty and the Beast" is a glimmering jewel in classic movies -- lusciously detailed, painfully lovely, and directed with great care. A must see for any cinephile.

I saw this movie about fifty years ago for the first time and have been enchanted by it ever since. I recommend it to everyone who love old fairy tales.

Belle's father (Marcel Andr') has to go to town for business. He asks Belle (Josette Day) what she would like him to bring her. A Rose as there are no roses at home. On his way back from the city he must go through a mysterious forest in the evening. He stumbles upon an enchanted abode. There he is offered food and drink. On his exit the next morning he pilfers a prize rose to fulfill his daughters wish. Now he is confronted by the home owner La B'te (Jean Marais). For his indiscretion he is given the choice of giving up his life or that of his daughter. He returns home to tell the tale.

The story first written by Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont is adapted by Jean Cocteau to film, also directed by Jean Cocteau.

I could explain the great visual effects and dialog chooses. But it is much better described by the voice over track on the Criterion version. You will be enchanted by this version an will come to make this your favorite.

THIS IS A GREAT DVD AND YOU CAN GET IT BRAND NEW CRITERION ON OTHER WEBSITES FOR LIKE $30.00, SHOP AROUND!!!!
I LOVE MY COPY.

Cocteau's BEAUTY AND THE BEAST will leave an impression on those who are about to see it for the first time. Anyone who has seen it already will be able to recount multiple favorite images and delight in expounding upon them. Film in the hands of some people seems to become more malleable. Cocteau is one such weaver of images whose fantasy world is at the same time childlike and foreboding - innocent as a puppet theatre ,then dark as sin.
The film mixes fantasy and reality by presenting time spent in the ordinary world in straightforward, unambiguous scenes and juxtaposing these with theatre-like sequences that represent the parallel world of enchantment. Surreal set pieces, mists and blackness define the borders of the Beasts domain.
From the Beasts smoking hands after the kill to the living arm sconces and the couples flight in the end, simple effects seem to gain impact from the bare uncomplicated nature of them thrust out into view like magic tricks.
Composed like paintings the rich imagery conspires with stellar black and white photography
to produce a seeming mid range of silver smoke and shimmering highlights.
Anyone into or discovering film should acquaint themselves with this highly original sence of cinema that has lured admierers for almost six decades.
This adaptation of a fairytale will be best understood by adults but should be shared with children as well.
Small children will be uneasy in the presence of the Beast who looks a far cry from a cartoon character. Also, someone older will have to read the subtitles to them but in a darkened room that might make it even more effective as a fairy tale experience.

The 1947 French Cocteau classic, "La Belle Et La Bete" (Beauty and the Beast)was revolutionary in its day and on this new DVD, we get all the scoop on the making of this film and the masterpiece of French cinema. There is commentary by cultural historians and film critics, insight from the director, cinematographer and the cast and even more impressive, the opera by Phillip Glass, which he modeled after this same film. The film stars Josette Day as Belle and a costumed and frightening Jean Marais as the Beast. This film was released when World War II still weighed on people's shoulders. The French cinema was taking the film world by storm. It would be only one of many Cocteau films, though most assuredly his best work. The most impressive aspect of this film is its special effects and cinematography. Cocteau infused the film with surrealism and magic, enhanced by special effects which were new at the time, though tame and old-fashioned by today's standards. Before the digital, computer-generated image, there was "camera tricks". Cocteau was wise to make a film set to an enchanted fairy tale. He was able to make the bewitched castle seem alive. There is a prevailing eerie mood. Gargoyle, stone statuary, noctunal moods, voices, talking mirrors and doors, doors which open and close on their own and dimly lit candelabrum made the interior of the Beasts castle supremely Gothic and sensational.

As far as the acting goes, the cast does a good job at deliviring a good performance eventhough they are portraying fantasy characters. Josette Day is a beautiful and noble heroine as Belle and the Beast, monstrous in looks but gentle of spirit and kind hearted in a more human way. The story is more true to the original concept of Beauty and the Beast. This is not to be mistaken with the Disney 1991 animated film. There is very little cuteness and charm in this one. It's presented as a serious work of cinema. A must have for cinema students.

This is a beautiful version of the "Beauty and the Beast" fairy tale. Cocteau creates a dreamlike world of fantasy and illusion. There are two versions of the film available on this disk - one with spoken words and one with opera singing. Both are French, subtitled in English. I watched this movie twice in one evening - once with the spoken dialogue, once with the opera track. I was enchanted by the beauty of the story, and the black and white picture adds to the mystery. This is a film that I would watch again and again.

Beauty and the Beast is based on Madame de Beaumont's fairy tale with the same name, and Cocteau's adaptation is strikingly alike the original with a few exceptions. The story begins with Cocteau explaining himself in the beginning of the film with a small statement in regards to children and their naiveté and then the film opens as most fairy tales do with, "Once upon a time..." The father is raising one son, Ludovic, and three daughters, Felicie, Adelaide, and Belle (translated to Beauty) by himself. Felicie and Adelaide are the malicious daughters that openly expresses their greed, sloth, and envy as they hurt Belle. The son brings the family to the brink of poverty as he loses the family's furniture and valuables in a gambling debt. On the way home from attempting to settle the debt, the father gets lost in a storm and he finds what seems to be a deserted magical castle. In the morning when the father gets ready to leave the castle he finds a rose and remembers that Belle's wish was to receive a rose, however, the Beast appears and expresses his dislike for theft of the rose and tells him that he must pay with his life or the life of a daughter. When Belle finds out she caused her father this anguish she voluntarily gives herself to the Beast. Beauty and the Beast is a fairy tale that teaches lessons as stories should, and there are several lessons worth learning in this magnificent adaptation by Cocteau. The special effects in the film enhance the magic as Cocteau presents his vision of Madame de Beaumont's fairy tale. Overall, the supreme realism which is observed in the Beast's humanity is a major factor in the films influence of a brilliant cinematic experience.

As Jean Cocteau stated in his essay of his own film, Beauty and the Beast, "I have tried to give you something of what led me into an experience that I shall not repeat, because true experience must be unique. I can only compare it once again to the casting forth of a seed, which falls on favorable or unfavorable ground, blowing where it will." Hence, Beauty and the Beast is truly a unique cinematic experience.

Sterling DVD release of a movie that only a heart of stone would dislike; certainly a must-have for Cocteau admirers.

The print is outstanding, the restoration they did on this is nothing short of magnificent. Watch it with music and subtitles (my favorite) or listen to it sung in opera. Either way, no one can ever out do this the way it was filmed years ago. Can't believe the special effects they had then. Costuming is also first rate. Can't say enough about this movie and the dvd edition. I saw the earlier version criterion had and this one jumps all over it. You would think it was filmed today the way it is cleaned up.