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Beauty and the Beast (2014 film)

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Beauty and the Beast
Theatrical Poster
Directed byChristophe Gans
Written byChristophe Gans
Sandra Vo-Anh
Produced byRichard Grandpierre
StarringVincent Cassel
Léa Seydoux
André Dussollier
CinematographyChristophe Beaucarne
Edited bySébastien Prangère
Music byPierre Adenot
Production
companies
Distributed byPathé (France)
Concorde Filmverleih (Germany)
Release dates
  • 12 February 2014 (2014-02-12) (France)
  • 14 February 2014 (2014-02-14) (Berlin)
Running time
112 minutes[1]
CountriesFrance
Germany
LanguageFrench
Budget€35 million[2]
Box officeUS$49.1 million (international)

Beauty and the Beast (French: La Belle et la Bête) is a 2014 Franco-German romantic fantasy film based on the traditional fairy tale of the same name by Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve. Written by Christophe Gans and Sandra Vo-Anh and directed by Gans, the film stars Léa Seydoux as Belle and Vincent Cassel as the Beast.[3]

The film was screened out of competition at the 64th Berlin International Film Festival[4] and was released in France on 12 February 2014 to positive reviews, becoming a box office success. International reviews were more mixed. It was nominated for the People's Choice Award for Best European Film at the 27th European Film Awards.[5][6] It also received three nominations at the 40th César Awards, winning Best Production Design for Thierry Flamand.[7][8]

Plot

In France, a widowed merchant (André Dussollier) is forced to sell his estate after his ships are lost at sea, leaving him bankrupt. He moves to a simple house in the countryside with his six children, though the only one happy with the change is his youngest daughter, Belle (Léa Seydoux). In town, the merchant is forced to flee into the forest when Perducas (Eduardo Noriega) threatens to harm him over his son's debts.

While lost in the forest, the merchant stumbles upon the magical domain of the Beast (Vincent Cassel). The merchant is confronted by the Beast when he tries to take a single red rose for Belle. As price for nabbing one of his roses, the Beast demands the merchant's servitude or his family will be killed. The Beast gives the merchant one day's leave to say goodbye to his children. Learning of her father's fate, Belle, feeling responsible, steals her father's horse and returns to the castle to take her father's place.

At the castle, Belle is given luxurious goods and allowed to roam the grounds, but must return every evening for dinner with the Beast. The Beast asks Belle if she will love him, but she rejects him. At night, Belle has vivid dreams about the castle as it used to be, and of the Prince who used to live in it. The Prince was in love with a Princess (Yvonne Catterfeld), who agreed to bear him a son if he promised to stop hunting an elusive golden deer, saying that his obsession keeps him away from her.

Belle makes the Beast a proposal: she will dance with him, if she is allowed to see her family one last time. The two begin to dance, and the Beast once again asks for Belle's love. Jarred, Belle demands to see her family as she had bargained. The Beast is apathetic. Belle fervently rejects the Beast for his deception, saying he will always disgust her. The same night, she witnesses the Beast prey upon and devour a hog. She is shocked and attempts to escape by running into the enchanted forest. Beast chases then catches her on a frozen lake. He climbs on top of her and tries to kiss her as the lake begins to crack under their weight. The ice gives way and Belle becomes submerged. The Beast pulls her from the water, and returns her to the castle.

When Belle awakes the next morning, the Beast agrees to let her return home. He repeats that she must return to him or that he will 'die' from the loss of her. Belle arrives home, where she finds her father is bedridden and her siblings are hiding from Perducas. Belle's eldest brother takes a jewel from her clothing, and posits whether the castle may contain further treasures. He goes to Perducas and his men, offering the riches of the castle as payment for his debt. The group travel to the castle and raid it, pulling a golden arrow held by a statue.

Belle has a final dream about how the Prince broke his promise and killed the golden deer with the golden arrow. While dying, the deer transformed into the Princess, who revealed that she had been a forest nymph all along, allowed to take human form in order to experience love. Her father, the god of the forest, punished the Prince by transforming him into the Beast, the dogs into small creatures named Tadommes, and his friends into statues. The god of the forest resounded that only the love of a woman would break the Beast's eternal curse.

She races to the castle after her brothers, arriving just as the Beast is about to kill them for intruding. The Beast stops his attack when Belle begs for mercy. Perducas uses the golden arrow to stab the Beast, mortally wounding him. Belle and her brothers carry the Beast into the castle as vines begin to overtake it. They place the Beast into a magical healing well. Dying, the Beast asks whether Belle could ever love him, and she counters that she already does. The Beast sinks into the water, and when he rises up he has transformed back into the Prince. The vines recede, the statues crumble, and the Tadommes return to dogs.

The film ends with the story being told by Belle to her two young children. They are living in the same countryside house with Belle's father. Belle goes outside to greet her husband, the Prince, and the two kiss and embrace.

Cast

Production

Principal photography took place in Germany, at the Babelsberg Studio in Potsdam-Babelsberg, from November 2012 to February 2013, on a production budget of €35 million.[9]

Box office

The film earned a total of US$49.1 million internationally.[10] In Japan, the film topped the box office on its release, making it the first non-English-language foreign film to top the Japanese box office since Red Cliff II in 2009, and the first French film to top the Japanese box office since Mathieu Kassovitz's The Crimson Rivers in 2001.[11]

Critical reception

In France, the film received positive reviews.[12] France Télévisions called the film Christophe Gans' "greatest success". They praised the colours and contrasts of the landscape, which they said recalled the work of American painter Maxfield Parrish, and the visual style, which they compared to films by Mario Bava and Tsui Hark. They also noted that Gans had successfully differentiated the film from the source material and prior adaptations, while keeping the "spirit" of the original story.[13] Laurent Pecha of EcranLarge remarked that while the film was "far from perfect", it was "so ambitious" compared to the "doldrums" of French cinema that Gans won her over. She called the introduction "spectacular" and praised Gans for his willingness to make the audience believe the "incredible and improbable love story", praising the "excellent" Seydoux and Cassel.[14] Writing for TF1, Olivier Corriez gave the film 4 stars out of 5 and remarked that it was not easy to offer a modern interpretation of Beauty and the Beast as it had been adapted so many times before, but found Gans' film "flamboyant" but "accessible to all audiences". He said that it "plays wonderfully on contrasts" and praised Seydoux for her "charm and tenderness" and Cassel for providing "brutality [and] weakness."[15]

International reviews were mixed. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a rating of 31%, based on 13 reviews and the average rating is 4.7/10.[16] Jessica Kiang of Indiewire thought the film was "immensely, crushingly boring" and Seydoux wasted in a role that required her to do little more than "heave her breasts and fall over things prettily."[17]

See also

References

  1. ^ "La Belle et La Bête". AlloCiné. Retrieved 22 January 2014.
  2. ^ "Christophe Gans • Director". Cineuropa. Retrieved 24 February 2014.
  3. ^ Vincent Cassel et Léa Seydoux : Une relecture grandiose de La Belle et la Bête
  4. ^ "Berlinale 2014: Competition Complete". berlinale. Retrieved 15 January 2014.
  5. ^ "EFA Opens Vote for People's Choice Award". European Film Academy. Retrieved 4 September 2014.
  6. ^ "European Film Academy opens vote for People's Choice Award 2014". Cineuropa. Retrieved 4 September 2014.
  7. ^ "Juliette Binoche, Marion Cotillard, Kristen Stewart Among France's Cesar Awards Nominees". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 31 January 2015.
  8. ^ "Cesar Awards: 'Timbktu' Sweeps, Kristen Stewart Makes History". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 24 February 2015.
  9. ^ ""La belle et la bête" et "Noé", deux films attendus en 2014". TF1. Retrieved 1 February 2014.
  10. ^ Nancy Tartaglione and David Bloom (10 January 2015). "'Transformers 4′ Tops 2014's 100 Highest-Grossing International Films – Chart". deadline.com. Retrieved 10 January 2015.
  11. ^ Kevin Ma (12 November 2014). "Beauty and the Beast, Twilight top Japan B.O." Film Business Asia. Retrieved 12 November 2014.
  12. ^ http://www.allocine.fr/film/fichefilm-203397/critiques/presse/#pressreview40009516
  13. ^ ""La Belle et la bête" : Léa Seydoux et Vincent Cassel dans une version épique". France Télévisions (in French). 10 February 2014. Retrieved 16 November 2014.
  14. ^ "Critique : Belle et la Bête (La)". EcranLarge (in French). 12 February 2014. Retrieved 23 December 2014.
  15. ^ "La Belle et la Bête". TF1 (in French). 10 February 2014. Retrieved 23 December 2014.
  16. ^ https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/beauty_and_the_beast_2014
  17. ^ "Berlin Review: Christophe Gans' 'Beauty And The Beast' Starring Léa Seydoux & Vincent Cassel". Indiewire. 15 February 2014. Retrieved 17 November 2014.
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