Beauty and the Beast
by Sandra Vo-Anh (scenario and dialogue), Christophe Gans, (scenario and dialogue) and Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont (story by)
In our effort to keep you informed on all things Beauty and the Beast, I have been WAITING for the French version to arrive on streaming services. It was released in France a few years ago, and had a brief run in American the theaters last year – so brief that I did not get to see it because I took a nap or something (or maybe it didn’t even make it to Boston?).
Anyway, it is now on Netflix, in all of it’s gorgeous glory and Vincent Cassel’s hot hot self.
Vincent Cassel is a very handsome man, y’all. VERY VERY HANDSOME.
I need you to know that. Like on a primal level.
This is your basic BatB story: wealthy merchant has three sons and three daughters, youngest daughter is the most beautiful and best beloved (Lea Seydoux, aka Fleur de la Cour from Harry Potter ), he loses all his money, and accidentally falls afoul of the Beast by trying to steal a rose, yadda yadda yadda. You know all of this. Belle takes her father’s place in the palace to atone for the stealing of the rose, romance ensues.
What makes this different is that
a) the costumes make Disney look like a high school production – a high school theater department with money, sure, but still high school
b) there’s a significant backstory to the Prince and how he became the Beast. It’s not simply “an enchantress wanted to crash on the couch.” No, centuries before, he was a Prince and a mighty hunter, and his wife begged him to cool it with the hunting a little, and he does something that gets him (deservedly) cursed for centuries.
Belle comes along, they fall in love, and the curse is broken.
So first, the good: this is GORGEOUS. Shockingly gorgeous! It’s set in the early 19th century, so Belle and and her sisters start off in Empire waisted gowns. Her sisters are ridiculous, vain people, so they’re on the cutting edge of fashion, while Belle, being sweet and good is content in a simpler dress and a quiet life in the country.
But once she’s in the Beast’s palace, he is still stuck in the mentality of the late 16th century, and the magic is such that the clothes have not rotted away. Every day, she gets a new gown that’s Fantasy 16th Century, and there’s some stunning pleating and smocking happening. It’s so pretty.
The beast is ACTUALLY BEAST LIKE.
Cassel is a martial artist (capoeira), and can MOVE. We don’t see his beast-face for a a while, we just see how he moves and exists and I love it.
I liked the backstory of the Beast and how he got there.
It’s a way bigger deal than “No, I do not approve your Couchsurfing request.”
Other interesting thing to note: The curse happens in the late 1500s or early 1600s. Belle finds the Beast well after the French Revolution. So because of the curse, the Beast survived (I mean, yes, he would have been dead of old age by the time Madame Guillotine made her debut, but his descendants didn’t get killed, either), and we don’t have to wonder how Belle and her Prince will survive the Revolution like we do with the Disney version from earlier this year.
Let’s move on to the bad: The romance is missing a chunk in the middle.
The movie literally goes from “AUGH you ate a boar with your bare FACE I cannot with this, I’m gonna try to escape from the castle by running across a frozen lake” to “are you going to give me a ring?” and “If you leave me I’ll die” in the course of a single near-drowning.
Sure, maybe, you can try to wave that away by saying “it’s a fairy tale, you fall in love on day four” (and it was day four!) but really, there’s no transition. They almost kiss, she almost dies, and that’s it, they’re in love. Was there a scene cut out? Or five? What happened here? How did you get from point A to point Q?
The scenes of his backstory did take up some time, but the real bloat was a subplot involving Belle’s brothers and bringing in a villain that could try to kill the Beast. (Luke Evans this guy was not.) That could have been trimmed and reworked and given us time for actual romance and kept us to a two hour running time.
But it’s SO PRETTY.
Note: this is in French, and the Netflix subtitles include all the closed-captions like, “Wind whistling,” which is occasionally hilarious.
Beauty and the Beast is available for streaming on Netflix, Amazon, Google:Play, & iTunes.
Ah I’ve loved Vincent Cassel since “Brotherhood Of The Wolf” – another gorgeously shot film (you don’t get many historic/martial arts/monster romances!). I will certainly be checking this out.
“Lea Seydoux, aka Fleur de la Cour from Harry Potter”
Fleur Delacour is portrayed by Clémence Poésy (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clémence_Poésy), not Léa Seydoux.
Léa Seydoux is best known internationally for playing Bond Girl Madeleine Swann in Spectre and for her role as a lesbian art student in Blue Is the Warmest Colour.
I saw that there was another newer BatB film out there and I didn’t even hesitate before adding it to my queue. Now I’m looking forward to it.
(My mother and I both have hearing issues so we use closed captioning a lot for some shows and movies. Whenever they have descriptions like “Birds chirping” we have a good laugh.)
I saw this movie in the cinema and I agree, it was gorgeous! The only other film that impressed me this much on big screen when it came to elaborate costumes was 2015 Tale of tales. It’s eye candy level 1500. Didn’t like the story though, or characters, or how they came together, or… basically anything else apart from visuals. So yeah… this one looks better in screenshots.
Sounds fabulous! Also, my hubs and I watch everything on captioning with really low volume because otherwise the kid wakes up. Our favorite subtitle is from Sherlock: “continues to shout in Serbian”
@Claire: OOOPS. Thank you for the correction – I should have double checked that one.
In addition to all the good stuff above, the soundtrack of this movie is gorgeous, Bitchery. Highly recommended. It’s ethereal and dreamlike – very good writing music.
I’m going to second the rec for “Brotherhood of the Wolf” in the first comment. I own it on DVD. It is another gorgeous movie, full of gorgeous people and costumes and martial arts. I will def be checking this version of BATB out, too.
I watched that movie when it came out.
From the trailer I was ready to fall in love with it.
But the lack of development in the romance left me feeling empty. As you mentioned, they went from A to Z and we wondered if we missed any scenes. For me it was unforgivable that they just SKIPPED what was supposed to be the highlight of the story.
Even so, in many ways this movie is superior to the Disney one.
I had no idea who Vincent Cassel was until I saw that gif and then I’m like ohhh it’s the Duke of Anjou!! How’s that for a throwback! From the 90s movie Elizabeth. He was so off the wall in that! I might check this out. Haven’t seen or wanted to see the Emma Watson one.
I adored this movie! This was the Beauty and the Beast that we deserved (the Disney remake just fell flat for me). It is absolutely stunning and the story is complex. I don’t feel like there is a missing piece because I saw glimpses of their attraction before the drowning incident. But then again I was just enchanted by the whole thing so I am not exactly unbiased. 😉 That being said I would have loved more time with the Beast and Belle together. I do like that Belle’s story is explored more fully which gives her more agency than other versions. Overall, this is just a fantastic movie. I hope the subtitles don’t put anyone off; it’s worth it even if you’re not usually into foreign movies. There is a dubbed version on the DVD, but it sounds so pretty in French.
IF he had given her a library, I would have bought the instant love. He didn’t so I couldn’t figure how she did the 180 switch of her feelings from hate/disgust to love. It was a beautiful movie to watch though.
Super pretty, and I like the extra mythology, but an extra 20 minutes of romance is really what was needed to make this movie work. The whole brotherly subplot is so pointless I actually forgot about it until I read this review. Cut that unnecessary use of film and give us more doe eyes!
To heck with Disney. How does this version relate to Jean Cocteau’s gorgeous 1946 La Belle et la Bête with Josette Day? Has anyone seen both?
When it first came out on Netflix it was only the English dub, and it lost a lot from the original. I have my hopes up now if it is in French again. The language is important, and dubs/subtitles often loose stuff along the way. (Take the movie French Kiss, not as funny in French… lol).
The one thing about the couchsurfing comment – hospitality used to be a MUCH bigger deal. We’ve lost that in our society and so that part of the story really doesn’t speak to modern audiences.
But, I’d never heard of this version and I’m definitely seeking it out now!
I agree with most of you: gorgeous visuals, but not as satisfying in the love story department. I also liked the dramatic back story. I felt the movie was sexy (no sex scenes, but all around French sexiness, you know).
And someone else who knows Brotherhood of the Wolf! I was so excited when I finally saw that movie, as it takes part in a region I went on vacation to many times, and I was intrigued by the legend of the beast of Gévaudan. Those grizzly murders really did happen, and they never found the culprit. Sadly I was disappointed with the way the legend is handled in the movie, but the landscapes are incredible. And I loved the making off movie on the DVD!
Saw this when it came out, and it struck me as so very, very French. There is a brief moment of his first wife nude, most definitely mot something you would see in an American version of a fairy tale. I’ve liked almost all of the movie versions, as they each have something different to offer.
NB: Both early versions of the French fairy tale have a malicious wicked fairy inflicting an undeserved curse. (Or I am much deceived by Gutenberg and GoogleBooks.)
“he does something that gets him (deservedly) cursed for centuries”
I don’t forgive the pre-Beast for that part. Completely disillusioned.
On the writing side, it was inventive of Christophe Gans to import that particular trope into the film; and it is vividly realised – painfully vividly realised, since it’s the tragic part of the plot – but unforgettable and unforgivable-in-my-book (/questionably-forgivable, without much runtime for redemption) make a terrible combination.