Review – Beauty and the Beast (1946)

This is one of the most visually stunning movies I’ve ever seen. The cinematography, art direction and costume design (some of which was done by Pierre Cardin himself) are beautiful, particularly for a black and white movie. However, for me the best part is the makeup. I share Greta Garbo’s reaction to the Beast’s transformation at the end of the movie: the strange, cat-like monster is way more interesting than Jean Marais sans fur. However, I went back and forth about the story and the dialogue (much of which was in French so simple even my high school lessons nearly three decades ago allowed me to follow it without recourse to the subtitles). Sometimes it created a dreamy, childhood fairytale atmosphere, but at other times it just seemed dumb. Still, those visuals … Worth seeing