Extra Credit Opportunity - Friday 3/23

Your Humble Blogger received an email from Mike Petros last night regarding this Friday's movie screening. It looks like a nice event...

SCREENING FRIDAY, MARCH 23, AT FRIDAY FLIX!
12:30 p.m., San Gabriel 334

"BEAUTY AND THE BEAST" (1946)
Directed by Jean Cocteau
Starring Josette Day and Jean Marais
Running time: 93 min.


Beauty and the Beast (French: La Belle et la Bête) is a 1946 French romantic fantasy film adaptation of the traditional fairy tale of the same name, written by Jeanne-Marie Le Prince de Beaumont. Directed by French poet and filmmaker Jean Cocteau, the film stars Josette Day as Belle and Jean Marais. It is widely considered one of the finest fantasy films of all time.

The plot of Cocteau's film revolves around Belle's father who is sentenced to death for picking a rose from Beast's garden. Belle offers to go back to the Beast in her father's place. Beast falls in love with her and proposes marriage on a nightly basis which she refuses. Belle eventually becomes more drawn to Beast, who tests her by letting her return home to her family telling her that if she doesn't return to him within a week, he will die of grief.

Upon Beauty and the Beast's December 1947 New York City release, critic Bosley Crowther called the film a "priceless fabric of subtle images,...a fabric of gorgeous visual metaphors, of undulating movements and rhythmic pace, of hypnotic sounds and music, of casually congealing ideas"; according to Crowther, "the dialogue, in French, is spare and simple, with the story largely told in pantomime, and the music of Georges Auric accompanies the dreamy, fitful moods. The settings are likewise expressive, many of the exteriors having been filmed for rare architectural vignettes at Raray, one of the most beautiful palaces and parks in all France. And the costumes, too, by Christian Berard and Escoffier, are exquisite affairs, glittering and imaginative." According to Time magazine, the film is a "wondrous spectacle for children of any language, and quite a treat for their parents, too".

In 1999, Chicago Sun-Times critic Roger Ebert added the Beauty and the Beast to his "Great Movies" list, calling it "one of the most magical of all films" and a "fantasy alive with trick shots and astonishing effects, giving us a Beast who is lonely like a man and misunderstood like an animal." A 2002 Village Voice review found the film's "visual opulence" "both appealing and problematic", saying "Full of baroque interiors, elegant costumes, and overwrought jewelry (even tears turn to diamonds), the film is all surface, and undermines its own don't-trust-a-pretty-face and anti-greed themes at every turn." In 2010, the film was ranked #26 in Empire magazines "100 Best Films of World Cinema".


DISCUSSION TO FOLLOW

ALL STUDENTS, FACULTY, STAFF, FRIENDS AND FAMILY ARE WELCOME

FRIDAY, MARCH 23, 12:30 p.m., San Gabriel 334