A Dustland Fairytale－Bluffing kfooz

When you saw a cast like that, you wonder what would possibly go wrong.

La Belle et La Bête (Beauty and the Beast) (2014)

Directed by: Christophe Gans

Written by: Christophe Gans, Sandra Vo-Anh, Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuv (story)

Starring: Léa Seydoux, Vincent Cassel

"Beauty and the Beast" is one of my favourite fairytale, and Belle is always my favourite princess. When I first saw the names of the leads, I was thrilled. Léa Seydoux is beautiful. Vincent Cassel is husky. They are well-known. They are brilliant actors. And they are French. The casting couldn't be more perfect.

However, we just couldn't see the chemistry between them, even in the famous dance scene. In fact, we seldom see these two characters together. The Beast repeatedly begged for Belle's love, while Belle said no coldly every time. The all of a sudden, Belle said she fell for him. What?! Wait a minute, when and where did that love came from? Stockholm syndrome?! What a wasted opportunity. I was really excited to see these two actors working together. They have so much chemistry in the publicity photoshots, just like this one.

From "Premire" magazine

The film tried to differentiate from the Disney version. There are no sights of speaking wardrobe, clock, candlestick, teapot or cups. There are puppies instead, which are actually quite irrelevent. We have a glimpse of the Beast's backstory, but that doesn't help to shape him as a pitiful character. The Disney one has way better storytelling and characterization.

However, I praise the set production and costume design team of this film. The set is splendid. Those dresses are girls' dreams. Watching the film is more like flipping the pages of a beautifully illustrated storybook.