Beauty and the Beast (1946)

  Well this was interesting.  In case I've never mentioned it before (which is entirely possible.  I forget to mention stuff all the time), I have never had any sort of film education.  I like watching films and I like reading about them but that's as far as I've gone.  I've never taken any sort of film class where you would learn about things like German Expressionism and French New Wave.  I just read websites run by people way more knowledgeable than me and then load up my Netflix queue.

Lots of movie-smart people raved about this one.  It's on TCM all the time and was accepted by the Criterion Collection, which distributes "important classic and contemporary films".  So I figured what the hell, I'll see what all the fuss was about.

Story-wise, it's pretty much spot on the original fairy tale.  Man loses his way in the forest and winds up in a mysterious manor.  He takes a rose from the garden for his daughter (Josette Day) and is accosted by a horrible beast (Jean Marais) who tells him that he is going to die unless he can get his daughter to take his place.  The girl moves ino the castle and eventually overcomes her fear of the Beast's ugliness to fall in love with him but not until he's almost dead.  Then he's transformed into a handsome prince.

This version manages to go a little nutty with the visuals.  First off, the Beast's make-up is remarkably thorough, even if he looks a little like a felt lion.  The costumes are yards and yards of sumptuous fabrics, so much that people look like they're swimming in wool and satin.  Then there are the sets. 

  Those are actual arms stuck through the walls.  The overall effect is very trippy and surreal, accentuated by some random slo-mo to make Belle look like she's gliding dream-like up the stairs. 

I was hesitant to watch this initally because the words "Art House" make me nervous that I'm not pretentious or snobby enough but this was so fascinating to watch that I forgot to pretend I didn't like it.