Beauty and The Beast - Criterion Collection (Restored Edition)

Rating:
Summary: well worth the price of admission
Review: Those involved in the restoration of this film deserve a well deserved thank you. This was surely painstaking work. I saw this film many years ago and it was riddled with visual lines and spots, as well as audio pops and crackling. I noticed things in this cleaned up version that were impossible to see before. Don't be turned off that it has subtitles, the dialogue isn't lengthy and it's easy to read. Jean Cocteau should have won an oscar for Best Foreign Film. The extras on this dvd are fascinating. Overall, top notch.

Rating:
Summary: One of the great screen fantasies of all time !
Review: A merchant lives with his selfish and vein wife Felice and his beloved sons: Adelaide , Ludovic and Beauty.
Beauty the youngest daughter is courted by Avenant (Jean Marais) though she puts aside her thoughts of marriage to care his father .
A ship arrives and the merchant revives hopes of prosperity . As he leaves the older daughters request extravagants presents but Beauty just asks him for a rose , but his creditors arrive before he did . So the dreams vanish . Without money he loses his way in a forest and comes upon a mysterious castle where he spends the night .
As you see the mythological clues are ready for you. And once you decide to enter to a incredible world .
Cocteau remained completely faithful to the spirit of the original tale but however , introduced such elements of the fantastic as the enchanted castle with arms supporting candelabra jutting from walls., Diana pavilions , Magnifique , the horse . I mean the film is a smart attempt at a realistic documentary of unreal happenings.
Beauty and the Beast won the Prix Louis Delluc (1946). The masterful directions shows elegance , restriction , rigor , precision , restraint and fortunately an eschewing of sentimentalism and cliches .
Jean Marais in his best achievement , Georges Auric composed the haunting music and the photograph is achieved by Henri Alékan .
Based on the classical tale by Mme. Leprince de Beaumont written in 1777 , the premiere in Paris October 29, 1946 AND New York Premiere December 23 1947 .
Sublime masterpiece and fundamental item in your collection .
Films like this convinces you the pictures may become in a vehicle where the art and poetry may join without restrictions , but you need talent .
This is the point and the great challenge.




Rating:
Summary: The Greatest of Surrealist Films.
Review: This film is simply the greatest masterpiece EVER of surrealist cinema. Among the admirers of this great work of art are Picasso, Jung, Dali.

The film raises the question: What is beauty?

The answer suggested is the artist's eternal response -- beauty is inseparable from the imagination of its proponent and its recipient, which makes it a moral as well as an aesthetic quality. Hence, the three sources of the Beast's magic power in the movie: the rose (his love), the mirror (the "canvas" of the screen/camera), and the white horse (the imagination that transports the creative artist and audience members to an alternate reality -- which is the work of art).

In the end, the "Beast" is not only the most truly beautiful character of all, but the determining power in this cinematic world, for his magic is the total power of the imagination. The film director, then, plays the same role for the audience as the "Beast" does for "Beauty." The role of "Beauty" is, in fact, played by the viewer of this film. The viewer is seduced by the director's dreams and images that he or she is asked to share -- and thereby, to alter, as the darkened cinema becomes the Beast's enchanted castle.

This movie was the inspiration for Disney's less successful animated effort. Don't miss it.

Rating:
Summary: Once upon our time...
Review: This film immediately captured my attention with the written comments at the beginning of the film. Director Jean Cocteau begins this story by explaining why he wanted to make this film. He talks about the passion behind the picture and all the social unrest at the time. He ends this written dialogue with a comment that will forever remain in my mind. He says, "...and now, we begin our story with a phrase that is like a time machine for children: Once Upon a Time..." This just sent chills down my spine. Why? Because, although he is addressing children, I feel that it is really a phrase meant for all of us. It is used to bring the child out in all of us, to show us that we do not need to be 4 or 5 to fully understand the themes of this film ... we are meant to just sit back and let the film take us to another mythological time.

The amazing set design also impressed me about this film. Again, without the modern conveniences of today's cinema, Cocteau had to improvise. This was hard for him to do. Not only were there huge budgetary issues (since it was the end of WWII and France was about to be demolished), but also he was racing against an impending war. Fear was deep in the hearts of the French after WWII, and what a better way to rally your people then with a story about love found in the darkest of places.

This film also made me very sad. I am sometimes disgusted with the way that Disney ... for lack of a better word ... Disney-fies their fairy tales. I think after watching this masterpiece I will have trouble ever being able to go back to the computer generated "Song as Old as Time" version that Disney plastered their trademark to. Never have I been so impressed with black and white cinematography as I have been with this film. The actress that plays Belle, Josette Day, steals the camera every time it is on her. She looks so radiant with the black and white that to see a colorized version of this film would completely do it injustice. The power and emotion that comes between Belle and the Beast feels so true. Cocteau has somehow grabbed the true feeling of two people that are complete opposites that seem to find true love in the coldest of places. I would be one of those reviewers that believes that if this film were released today, it would still pull the audiences in as it did the first time. Only proving that it was made well before it's time, it shows so many of the characteristics of the modern day movie. Even the special effects seem perfect for this film. Even with budget being sub-par, we are able to get a true feeling that this Beast is one of the magical kind.

Oh, this film was superb. I would have to say that it is the best adaptation of a fairy tale that I have seen today. Definitely my best 40s film (made in 1946), and possibly the best telling of Beauty and the Beast EVER!!

Grade: ***** out of *****