Movie Review: La Belle et le Bete (1946)

I don't like sticking with one hobby, and I feel like I only show my book loving side on this blog. Books are wonderful in every way, but I want to spice things up a bit, and because of the holiday season, I've been slacking on reading, and been a movie watcher instead.

Today, I'm going to tell you about La Belle et le Bete. If you didn't already know, that is the original Beauty and the Beast film. The film that became a huge success when France was in the World War II depression. It sounds wonderful and all, but if you've never seen it then you will be in a ride for yourself.

The movie is completely in French-there are English subtitles-as far as I know there is not a dubbed version, so don't count on it. If you are a French loving speaker, like moi, the movie is not too hard for beginner in French. I have only taken one and a half years of French classes myself, and I catch most of the words without reading the subtitles.

The set and the quality of the movie is quite awesome for a 40s movie. I'm not completely sure if that is an understatement or an overstatement, but I was blown away at the 'special effects' in the movie. There are somethings like magic in the movie that makes me wonder how the movie magic worked back then, but I'd rather not spoil my mind, this is an incident of ignorance is bliss.

I noticed something that I didn't notice when thinking back about the Disney version of this movie. It is that Twilight and Beauty and the Beast are so much a like. Well, not sooo much, but close enough. The beast is clearly an animal in the movie and he can't control himself very well when confronted with prey, just like Edward Cullen. Weird, right? Am I the last person to see this connection? Yep. I probably am. Anyways, I'll say this for all of you Twilight haters out there,"At least it's a better love story than Twilight."

The acting in this movie is not terrible. Of course the fighting, and somethings that because of the time period the movie was made in, makes it seem a little to far-fetched, but I do believe that these actors were great for the role.

I love old movie soundtracks. They seem to be so easily blended into the movie, while bringing a new life to the story. Some of my favorite songs in the movie are:

Dans la Chambre(In the Bedroom)
Les Entrentiens au Parc(Conversations in the Park)
La Bete Jalouse(Beast's Jealousy)

I never was a huge lover of the Disney Princesses. Cinderella was more of my favorite princess, though I never wanted to be any of them. They were all really dreadful people in my opinion, but as a young girl you can't help but like the dresses and balls held. There's also the idea that we might meet our prince charming like one of them. :)