Here we have our second foreign language film (the other was The Diving Bell and the Butterfly; Mala Noche doesn't count because it was mostly English with a lot of Spanish in it) of the list: the definitive live-action Beauty and the Beast, the French version, directed by Jean Cocteau. Interestingly enough, The Beast (always "The" Beast, as that is what Belle calls him, and he, to her, The Beauty) and Avenant, Belle's "suitor", were both played by the same person, Jean Marais, who was Jean Cocteau's partner for the last 25 or so years of the director's life.
There are a ton of differences between this movie and the super-popular Disney version, but the main story remains, obviously, much the same: Belle's father becomes a prisoner of the Beast and Belle takes his place; he's horrible, but she learns to love him; there is a separate faction who wants to see the best dead, and a man who wants Belle for his own. The Beast looks awesome; he's wild-looking with a wide torso, but his clothes are reminiscent of the title song scene from the animated version (the one where Angela Lansbury is singing while Belle and the Beast are dancing). The look of the movie is surprisingly good for such an old film, obviously shot with a smallish budget. Belle's sisters (yes, she has two of them) are screeching harpies (this entire relationship is very King Lear) and her brother (yes, she has one of those, too) is somewhat of a rogue who is friends with Avenant.
There is a subcontext that provides for a different reason for wanting to kill The Beast, other than Avenant's wanting Belle: the family has fallen into a bit of ruin when their merchant father's ships were lost at sea. The sisters (who banish Belle to the task of taking care of the family-- think Cinderella) are concerned most about their loss of status and wealth, so they want The Beast killed for, we presume, his money.
I love the ending and how it uses the difference between life and death (and requires the Prince that The Beast turns into to also be Marais) to its advantage. It is a great duality and one that makes a typically pat ending better than it could have been. And no, the last line of the film is not, "Do I still have to sleep in the cupboard?". Yecch.
Score: 9.5/10
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