ATTENTION! Mean spoiler below!
Second viewing (1st on April 12, 1992).
English title: Beauty and the Beast
Based on the short story by Jeanne-Marie Le Prince de Beaumont (1st pub. 1756), in turn an adaptation of a longer narrative work by Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve (1st pub. 1740), which in turn was based on a traditional fairy tale.
I must be excused, yet again, for not being able of new insights about this film. Most has already been said, and often brilliantly so. Let me just say that it is a felicitous work, in which nothing seems to go wrong, and some things go very right. There is one thing, however, that bothers, or rather, intrigues me, and that is the ending. I did not read many reviews, therefore I do not know whether anyone had the same reaction as I did. Most of what I did read tended to emphasize the allegorical aspect of the story and thus of the ending. I in turn, while agreeing with this interpretation, cannot avoid looking also to the straight facts that happen, namely that Avenant is killed and robbed of his appearance, a fact that does not make the Beast a model of virtue; the fact that Beauty is OK with this is a bit shocking, and does not make her a paragon of morality either. I guess, as they say, and I have quoted just the other day, all is fair in love and war.
Rating: 73 (up from 70)
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment