La belle et la bête
Director: Christophe Gans
Writer: Sandra Vo-Anh, Christophe Gans
Based on: the fairy tale
Cast: Vincent Cassel, Léa Seydoux, André Dussollier, Yvonne Catterfeld

Plot:
After his ships sink, a rich merchant (André Dussolier) is left destitute. He has to move to a small cottage in the countryside, much to the chagrin of all his children, except Belle (Léa Seydoux), who loves life on the country. One day, after trying to get their money back in the city, the merchant becomes lost in the woods. He happens upon a castle where nobody seems to be, but a rich feast is there for him to take. But when he also tries to take a rose for Belle, a beast (Vincent Cassel) appears and demands that the merchant be his prisoner for the theft. The merchant agrees but asks to see his children one last time, a wish the beast grants. But when Belle hears about the sacrifice, she offers herself in her father’s stead, setting a whole string of events in motion.

Beauty and the Beast is a problematic story (hello, consent issues and Stockholm syndrome!), but I honestly thought that I had seen the worst possible version of it in Beastly. Well, La belle et la bête fights extremely hard for that spot.

[SPOILERS]

What is it that makes this version so bad, I hear you ask. Well, for one, there is no character development whatsoever for the Beast. None. But then there wouldn’t be, since they’d shortened the time Belle spends with him to about three days.

Then there’s the fact that they gave the Beast a backstory wherein he kills his wife. He doesn’t know it’s her at the time, but still. That’s quite the “character fault” the Beast has to atone for.

Plus, Belle is obviously meant to be the perfect woman, contrary to her sisters (who don’t even get separate characters but are the same person). And perfect in this context means demure, sacrificing, in tune with nature, modest. Basically the meek little wifey and it made me want to retch.

There are good things about the film. The special effects are nice, and the Beast’s world looks pretty cool – even if it’s sometimes a little too sweet and romantic. And Vincent Cassel is always enjoyable. But the film itself is utter crap.

Summarizing: No.