One of the great joys about cinema and being obsessed with it, is
when you come across a director whose work you have previously been
unaware of and then connecting with their work and finding hidden
gems. Such is the case with Czechoslovakian director Juraj Herz, who
until about a month and a half ago, I didn't even know existed.
Whilst doing some research on great and unknown foreign horror
movies, Herz's name seemed to pop up regularly and this led me to
look closer at the man's filmography. I was stunned when I came
across the fact that he had made a version of the “Beauty and the
Beast” fairytale and that it was highly regarded; stunned by the
fact that I had never heard of it before. Personally I am a massive
fan of Jean Cocteau's rendition of the same story, “La Belle et la
Bete”, due to its sumptuous beauty and poetic nature, and always
thought this was the definitive version of the story, but I was more
than eager to try and track down Herz's version and give it a spin.
Thankfully I was successful in my search, and now have decided to
review it, so did it do the impossible and best the Cocteau version,
was it a pale imitation or did it create a whole different kind of
magic?
This version of the classic tale remains basically the same with a
well to do merchant dealer going broke after his shipment of goods
gets destroyed, this time whilst the people delivering the cargo
attempt to pass through the haunted black woods (home of the Beast).
With nothing to his name, the man must sell all his earthly
possessions to pay off his debts. Once this is done, all that is
left is a portrait of his second wife and mother to his third and
youngest daughter, Julie. Since the frame the painting is encased
in is of considerable worth, he heads off to sell the portrait in an
attempt to gain enough money to start life anew. His two eldest
daughter's demand gifts of jewels and diamonds upon his return,
whilst the young Julie's only wish is for a single rose. The father
heads off and after getting himself lost, ends up travelling through
the dreaded black woods. He comes across a run down old castle, and
helps himself to both food and drink that are there, as if waiting
for his arrival. He falls asleep in front of the fire and when he
awakens he finds that the portrait is gone, and in its place is a
wealth of jewels, coins and diamonds. The man is ecstatic and takes
his leave, but upon exiting, he notices a beautiful white rose. He
picks the rose for Julie, when he is then stopped by the angry beast.
Enraged at the gall of the man in attempting to steal his rose,
after all that he has given him, he tells the man that he is to die.
His only chance of survival is if one of his daughter's takes his
place willingly. The man understands his doom and accepts it, but
asks the beast for a couple of days grace to set his family up before
he returns. The beast agrees. When the father gets home, he relates
his story to his daughters, but it is only Julie that hears his words
and without hesitating she takes off into the woods to take her
father's place and to be this mysterious beast's prisoner.
This is an amazing movie and I thoroughly loved every second of it.
Whilst I do not think it is better than the Cocteau version, I
believe it is no less a stunning picture for it. In fact the two
pictures are quite different with Herz's version being a much darker
and Gothic affair that it borders much closer to a horror film. Any
one who knows me, knows that two things I absolutely love are fairy
tales (the darker the better), and horror films and I believe that
cross over of each into the other is always ripe because they both
seem so closely related. As I have said, this version of “Beauty
and the Beast” is a much more terrifying version but no less
magical or beautiful.
Juraj Herz has added a lot of little touches to the story to make it
his own, most notably in regards to the beast himself and his abode.
The single greatest moment in the film is when we see the beast for
the first time. In all previous versions of this story that I have
watched, the appearance of the beast is more akin to that of a cat or
bear, or a combination of the two. Here however, the beast is a
giant bird like creature. My mouth just dropped agape at this
revelation and originality of his design and it just felt so right.
It made so much sense that the beast could look like this in this
world; with his large head and face full of beak, not to mention his
sharp taloned hands that look ready to rip anything to shreds if so
he desires. This beast is a terrifying incarnation and not the sad,
lonely cursed figure he comes across in some versions (even though he
is that here too). Another addition to the beast here is the fact
that he is constantly fighting within himself to embrace his darker
animal nature and to kill Julie. The voices in his head all tell him
that he must do it to survive, but he constantly fights against this
in an attempt to have some semblance left of being human and thus
have a chance at redemption. Personally I love this added bit to the
story because it makes the beast that much scarier knowing he is
slightly insane too. What is interesting too is that the longer
Julie stays with him, the more she changes him and makes him more
human, both figuratively and literally (as you can see from the photo
above, Julie changes the beasts terrifying claws into human hands
when she touches them one night). The dark side of the beast finds
this a threat and is constantly trying to show him how weak he has
become the more human he has become.
The castle that the beast lives in is also treated quite different
here in that in this version it is more of a run down old ruin, and
yet there is still a beauty to it, and it is full of such magic.
Whilst Julie believes that this magic starts the fires and sets the
tables with food when needed, what she cannot see is that the beast
has a number of hidden “Gollum” like minions who perform these
tasks from the shadows. It is quite the image witnessing a chandelier
descending with one of these dark servants aboard it lighting the
table's candles. One of my favourite scenes in the film is when
Julie is dancing and playing with the beast's statues that all exist
in a hallway. She takes their hands and admires their faces, all
while prancing around them in happiness. That night though, the
beast destroys each of the statues removing their hands and face, for
he is jealous because he wishes Julie that they were his hands and
face that Julie was admiring, but knowing that can never be. When
Julie sees the destruction the next morning, she begins to weep and
it is such a beautiful moment.
In regards to Julie, the “Beauty” of the film, it is really hard
for Herz to make any sort of significant impact on her to make her
character his own, so she remains relatively the same as in the other
versions; the picture of innocence, beauty personified and with a
heart full of love. She is played by Zdena Studenkova, who does an
admirable job in the role. Although she is very innocent, she is a
strong character and at times quite stubborn. One scene that I liked
towards the end was when she first sees the beast's face, and
attempts to love him for who he really is, only to retract in horror
after staring at his visage too long and realising that he is too
frightening to love. I must admit I was not expecting this moment at
all, as I thought it would be more cliché and that she would see
beyond his looks and love him, but instand she hurts him be rejecting
him just as he exposes his vulnerability and shows her who he really
is. From a visual standpoint, my favourite moment involving Julie is
when she drinks the drugged drink and falls in slow motion, asleep
onto her bed. It is a beautiful fairytale moment.
In fact the whole film is a visual feast, with Herz having great fun
with both darkness and light, with Julie constantly bathed in soft
beautiful light, whilst the beast is hidden within the dark shadows
of the castle. From a shot perspective, Herz is very inventive
choosing interesting angles always, often shooting through objects to
give you the feeling you are participating with the film in a
voyeuristic capacity much like the beast himself. His use of colour
is especially well done and although it may be a cliché, I loved
that Julie was always dressed in white compared to the beast's black.
The scenes in the snow with the beast watching from above were
particularly well handled.
Overall, I fell in love with Juraj Herz's version of “Beauty and
the Beast” and have in fact already watched it twice. It is a
thrilling dark take on the classic tale and I loved all of its Gothic
styling. Also unlike the recent “Crimson Peak”, this Gothic tale
did the right thing by having the castle burn down at the end. The
imaginative choice to make the tormented beast a bird like creature
was the absolute highlight of the film for me, and just for this
choice alone I can not recommend this film enough. Since watching
this film, I have been able to track down a few more of Juraj Herz's
films; “Morgiana” (not bad, if a little slow) and “Ferat
Vampire” (disappointing), although none best his version of “Beauty
and the Beast”.......yet. My one hope now is that someone releases
this beautiful film on blu-ray in the very near future. Either way,
I'm sure that I will continue revisiting this stunning film
regularly.
4 stars.
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