Beauty and The Beast (The Criterion Collection)

Beauty and The Beast (The Criterion Collection)
by Jean Cocteau

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DVD Reviews of Beauty and The Beast (The Criterion Collection)

DVD Review: The greatest film version of a fairy tale ever produced
Summary: 5 Stars

This film is, by any conceivable standard, one of the most imaginative, beautiful films ever created. It is, to my mind, Cocteau's masterpiece. He made this film at a time when a number of filmmakers in England and the United States had been creating fairy-tale like films for adults (in particular, Powell and Pressburger in Great Britain, but there were a number of Hollywood fantasy films from the same period). But this one far outstrips the others in inventiveness and creativity. By today's standards, when computers can make absolutely anything possible, the special effects are crude. Yet, they remain more effective than many of today's state-of-the-art effects. For instance, the disembodied forearms holding candles in the entrance hall, or the striking way that the Beast is resurrected in Avenant's body near the end.

I will go further in praising this film. BEAUTY AND THE BEAST is easily the most artistically successful Disney animated film of the past few decades. Yet, I do not believe that it compares favorably with the Cocteau film. The Disney film has many virtues, but it lacks the extraordinary magic and wonder contained in the French film. Perhaps because it is not an animated film, one sense that at any moment something magnificent might happen in Cocteau's film, and the miracle is that he so frequently is able to delight the viewer. In animation, anything is possible, but using real actors and real objects, Cocteau is constantly able to produce utter magic.

Jean Marais is marvelous in his dual role as the cold-hearted and cruel but incredibly handsome Avenant, and the externally hideous but internally beautiful beast. He throws himself enthusiastically into both roles. I once read an interview with Cocteau in which he marveled at Marais's performance. In one instance, Marais as the Beast throws himself prostrate in order to drink water on the ground. The water was dirty and scum covered, but Cocteau was stunned that Marais frantically drank from it nonetheless. With the possible exception of the title role in Cocteau's ORPHÉE, this is his greatest role. The wonderful duality of the title comes out not just in referring to the beautiful young woman played by Josette Day and the beast portrayed by Marais, but the moral beast Avenant and the morally beautiful Beast, both portrayed by Marais. It is needless to add that Marais was easily one of the most handsome men of the twentieth century.

This is a must-see classic. It is one of the greatest fantasy films ever made, perhaps the greatest film version of a fairy tale, and the finest film made by Jean Marais. That the film was produced so soon after the War (1946) is yet one more of the film's miracles.

Description of Beauty and The Beast (The Criterion Collection)