A Bela e a Fera

I should have seen this before the latest Disney version of the tale. It came a couple of years ago, with a wonderful cast and visuals. French cinema is not a great vfx powerhouse. Unlike most of the famous Hollywood mythical and fairy tales originated from Europe, it's rare to see them converted to films in the similar fashion in its homeland. One of the reasons was the international market, to earn back everything they have spent for it, and more. When such projects do happen, sometimes the filmmakers tie up with Hollywood co-production to secure returns. Even if you take this film's worldwide box office, nothing overwhelming. But the challenge they had taken was truly appreciable.

That's not it, this is the most redesigned versions of them all I've seen so far. Because I haven't seen any other than Disney's, excluding the modern timeline adaptation like 'Beastly', 'I' et cetera. Yeah, even the Disney's live-action retained original from their animated version, but visually extraordinary. And in here, the story was same, thought told in a different way. The graphics too were very nice, I did not expect that. Despite it is being a fantasy and a children's tale, the contents were more serious. That reveals they were very keen to bring the adults to the screens than the kids. Yet nothing too seriously targeted the grownups like 'Tale of Tales'.

Everyone knows the basic storyline of this tale. A recently lost their fortune, a family of six siblings with their father relocates to a small farmhouse. No one other than the youngest daughter, Belle, was happy to be in such nature surrounded place. But one day when her father got into a big trouble, she takes his position and becomes a prisoner in an abandoned castle. Since then she begins to learn about the mystery man of the castle, particularly his past, reason to be ended like that. And following, a twist in the narration leading to the finale, everyone's fate will be revealed.

❝Remember... A life for a rose.❞

The film was two hours long and well filled with the scenes in it all over. It doesn't feel like we're watching a fantasy film. The colours, costumes, medieval story, misty mountain, all is the major reminder that you are watching a fairy-tale. Though you won't get anything magical from the story right away. Not until the third act. As for the story, from such vastly known tale, you can't expect any major surprise. As I said, some minor changes can be witnessed throughout. But such kind of scale the flick has in all the department, that too coming from Europe makes it a very special.

Definitely no to comparison with the Disney's. Both of them were fine products on their own way. But people would compare and pick one when they are based on the same source. That can't be stopped. Disney had created their own brand, aiming for kids. You can find the people who liked both the live-actions. I never knew the original tale, I mean from the original source/text. Those who are familiar with are saying, this is most closest one. But something I did not understand was the Beast was cute furry Beast, just like Disney's. I anticipated something tough physique, hard character, I mean Beast as a real Beastly.

Excluding that slight displeasure, I have had no other complaints with the film. I enjoyed it, yet there's another thing which is actually a question rather than a disagreement. The actors did their parts, though I felt the Beast character should have been played by a younger one. Vincent Cassel is a brilliant French actor and he did his best for it. Lea Seydoux as Beauty surely an excellent pick. The direction was good. Cautiously spent for everything in the film. So they have got a fine final product. Most of the people going for it, only keeping in mind Disney. You won't get that Disney's singing, dancing, overall appeal. One must clear off his mind from any great ideas and then only give it a try. Remember, it is not a very good film, but simply a good film.

7/10

La Belle et la Bête is such a beautiful movie with high production values that it could pass for one of these recent Hollywood blockbusters picking up all those old fairy tales and turning them into live-action movies, but in fact it's a high-end French movie, so unfortunately not as many people will get to see it. Which is a shame, because it really is candy for the eyes.

Although a good chunk of the movie is CGI, it really doesn't look like it, and most of the sets look real (unlike 'Maleficient', which also had beautiful imagery, but looked somewhat fake). The Beast's castle and surrounding gardens look magical, and the style reminded me a lot of 'Labyrinth'. The castle's interior decoration is so mesmerizing that it just makes you want to jump into the movie and explore it along with Belle. The music is also one of the movie's strong points, with melodies that really match the movie's beauty.

Unfortunately, as beautiful and magical the movie looks and sounds, it feels quite empty. The story is a lot closer to the original tale than the Disney version, with a darker tone, but the love story was put aside in favor of showing the movie's aesthetics. Although the movie slightly dwells into Belle's life and the Beast's past, neither character really feels developed, making it unbelievable that they would fall in love.

The movie strongly feels like a scene of connection is missing; one minute they're fighting, the next they're kissing, with absolutely no logic to their love story. Their love is never shown; you as the viewer don't see how they fall in love. A little extra 10 minutes to show their relation would have made all the difference. As it is, it makes no sense these two characters would be together. The Disney version did a better job at showing this.

Nonetheless, the movie is still worth a watch for the beautiful visuals if you like the original story; it goes deeper into certain aspects of it, but sadly the love story was lost somewhere along the way. Too bad, because this could have been better than anything Hollywood could have brought us, if only they had put a little more effort into building the two main characters.

Beauty and the Beast is another proof that French cinematography is on par with current Hollywood blockbusters in terms of CGI and outperforms them in storytelling. It might be wrong to generalize like this, but the previous sentence can't be negated in any serious discussion.

Beauty and the Beast is, hopefully, a fairy tale known to everyone. Discussing the script or actors' performance would be beyond the point. The story is retold in a visually perfect manner. Actually, this is in line with movies in which a superhero does the same thing one more time, but with a different lead actor and targeting the audience that was too young to witness the previous installment.

The best thing about this movie is the atmosphere. It is indeed a fairy tale, with some passion and some action, but it never becomes sleazy or boring.

This is an almost perfect version of this well known story but my problem is that we do not feel the growing love of Belle for the beast too much. She's seeing in dreams who was the beast before, so we understand she can fall in love for who he was, but not too much for who he really is. If that makes sens. But all in all it's a very well made movie for all the family. The tone is a bit dark for little kids but always beautiful, as it's usually the case with Gans's movies. The use of CGI is obvious on the creatures, but it's done with good taste, IMO. It's a shame gans does not make more movies, I love his style. It's just that, after all this time waiting for a new movie of him, I wanted a little more substance.

I don't want to get you bored with long texts. My personal opinion is that 2 very good actors (Bella and Cassel) are wasted in a film with slow and uninteresting plot.

The same thing goes for the director. The special effects are great, the backgrounds and the places are awesome but it's just that.

PS. I saw it with French audio + subtitles so I may have missed a lot of important details. Sorry about that.