Beauty and the Beast (The Criterion Collection) Reviews

The first third of La Belle et La Bete may seem a little too long and a little too slow, but the film still has the power to cast its spell over an audience. At times, perhaps from a modern viewer's perspective, you find yourself admiring the technique a little more than its soul, and Jean Marais' performance as the Beast strangely pales compared to his two-faced suitor, but then he was never exactly a great actor. Yet the complexity that Cocteau manages to bring to the film is still surprising, with neither the brother nor suitor descending to the easy caricature of the two ugly sisters: the former knows he and his sisters are wastrels, but that doesn't make him less of a liability, while the latter is almost in denial of his own nature. But ultimately it's the magical design that seduces, a fairytale kingdom smack in the middle of a believable world, but neither necessarily a benign one.

Criterion's restored DVD and Region A-locked Blu-ray is quite superb, boasting an excellent transfer and a selection of very good extras that exceed those on the BFI's UK DVD - audio commentaries by Arthur Knight and Christopher Frayling, 1995 documentary Screening at the Majestic, TV interview with Henri Alekan, extract from TV show Secrets Professionnels - Tete a Tete, optional Phillip Glass opera soundtrack, stills gallery, film restoration demonstration, trailer and booklet including article by Jean Cocteau and (though curiously not in the Blu-ray version) Mme. Leprince de Beaumont's original story. By contrast, the BFI's DVD only includes the Frayling commentary, Screening at the Majestic documentary and stills gallery. Do bear in mind, however, that Criterion's Blu-ray is Region A-locked.