LA BELLE & LA BÊTE - MMXVII

The first we got to see in autumn last year were some celebrities' names and this crimson rose in a frosted dome (reminiscent of both B&tB and The Snow Queen); details that already got me excited and waiting for springtime. And it has truly felt like a long awaited springtime after an endless winter, to borrow a metaphor from the film itself!

Tale as old as time, true as it can be... I had been waiting until the musical version of the French fairytale that awoke my passion for literature should be brought to the live action format and hoped that said version would not disappoint me. It has not... rather, the whole film, which I have watched this evening, has taken my breath and heartbeat away. It's not a film, it's a MAGNUM OPUS. The setting, the songs, the costumes, the unexpected twists... And this is the reason why I have decided to consecrate a review to it right here and right now... detailing all the things I have adored about this version: loose ends cleared up, animated scenes brilliantly rendered into live action, and some Easter eggs one needs real passion for literature in general and the Bard in particular, like that of Belle and her Beast, to discover!

The all-star cast: Already when it was revealed in autumn last year, it filled me with elation upon seeing a roster full of stars of both the 1990s and the present day, most of which I knew from other films and even from Shakespeare, recreating the tale as old as time. To quote the most relevant, and the ones that made me squee the most and wait the most for springtime, here are they:

• Emma Watson --Hermione Granger-- as Belle
• Dan Stevens --Matthew Crawley-- as the Master (Beast/Prince)
• Luke Evans --Dracula-- as Gaston
• Joshua Gad --Olaf, the happy snowman-- as Lefou
• Kevin Kline --the young man in A Fish Called Wanda, Nick Bottom, Captain Phoebus-- as Maurice (Papa)
• Sir Ewan McGregor --Obi-Wan Kenobi, Christian James, Iago-- as Lumière
• Sir Ian McKellen --Henry V, Iago, Gandalf-- as Henry Cogsworth
• Dame Emma Thompson --Beatrice, Sybil Trelawney, Nanny McPhee, Captain Amelia Smollett-- as Beatrice Potts

Seeing those scenes come alive
The old rose-seller revealing herself as a fairy, turning the prince into a beast and the courtiers into objects. Belle walking past the chickens and getting dissed by the other villagers. Belle taking her leave of her papa. The Master Beast capturing Maurice after he's picked that rose. Belle returning Romeo and Juliet to the priest (instead of Jack and the Beanstalk to the librarian!). Belle giving Gaston the axe. The triplets fawning over Gaston. Chip blowing bubbles for Belle. The Master and Belle at first mistrusting one another. Mme. de Garderobe decking Belle in uncomfortable court dress. Belle befriending Lumière, and the extravagant feast for both the lips and the eyes that he prepares for her. The Master saving a runaway Belle from a pack of wolves. Belle nursing the Master back to health. Belle and the Master enjoying the wintry garden, the library, finding a common interest in literature and realising they have both found a well-read kindred spirit with a decent education as a springboard for the fact that there's something there. The snowball fight in the royal gardens, Belle discarding her spoon and drinking soup from the plate like her beau. That dance, both lovers getting prepared for the ballroom; her golden gown and his cobalt blue overcoat. Gaston in scarlet mess uniform drowning his sorrows in the tavern and Lefou bragging about his accomplishments to all the others. Belle scrying into the mirror to find her papa in distress. The Master letting Belle go and regretting it, feeling as if she would betray him. Belle and Maurice locked in the Maison des Lunes carriage and finally escaping. The storming of the castle. Mme. de Garderobe singing her solo as she throws herself down a ledge. Gaston treacherously striking the Master down in the back, and then falling to his death from a parapet. The Master dying in Belle's arms, suddenly disenchanted, as well as all the objects... and that final dance that crowns it all. Seeing all of these scenes take place in live action is astounding, and besides it has also awakened old memories within me...

Winter in the palace grounds
The fairy's spell, aside from enchanting the prince and courtiers, trapped the palace grounds in an endless winter (mirroring the Master's icy heart), while the seasons change in the outside world. This lends the gardens and windows a magical air as well as frosting the rose dome (as seen in this review's title card): each time a petal falls, the frost advances, the château crumbles, and the courtiers-turned-objects become a little more rigid. Springtime does not come until Belle's tears of true love bring on the disenchantment... and it's a truly magical scene, seeing the courtiers change back and make peace with the villagers as the thaw and the warmth finally arrive!

The setting: Villeneuve and the Château de la Bête come alive
Both the quaint village and the magnificent baroque castle/palace we have come to associate with the tale feel like real places. The wintry royal gardens, the well-assorted library, the washer where the village women gather to wash their clothes and gossip, the all-male local school (Belle is chided for teaching a washergirl literacy!), Belle's cozy workshop home in Villeneuve and her lovely bedchamber with a canopy bed... the dragons that flank the entrance staircase... it all feels so lifelike that we are as shuttled into this eighteenth-century world of the French Enlightenment as Belle is to her birthplace of Montmartre using the magic portal book!
The period costumes --for courtiers and villagers, men and women, adults and children alike-- are extremely detailed and add even more excitement and aesthetic pleasure to the immersive eighteenth-century experience that is watching this film!!

Gaston the officer (and General Cogsworth!)
Of course, what would a good early modern period piece be without some men in uniform? Specifically (influenced certainly by the lieutenant who led the hunt for the Bête de Gévaudan!), Gaston is stated to be a military officer with the rank of captain and Lefou under his command during both wartime and peacetime, most surely as his orderly (officer's personal valet). The queued macho, implied to have deflowered women during wartime, gets to wear both his field and mess uniform (the former a café au lait brown with scarlet facings, the latter his trademark scarlet brocade coat!) during the course of the film. Luke Evans implies that his character is suffering from PTSD and putting off a miles gloriosus façade before the villagers, as their local homegrown war hero, to conceal all he has suffered during the wars he has fought in.

• Dark and Troubled Past: Whatever Gaston experienced during the war has greatly influenced his present-day behavior. He treats everything as a military campaign and Lefou would often have to calm his anger by reminding him of the glorious battles. And when Gaston decides to tie up Maurice to a tree and be left to the wolves, the way he describes the scenario suggests that some of his experiences were not all that glorious as he likes to boast.

• Glory Days: The war was this for him. His military background is implied to have shaped Gaston's ego and personality. According to Luke Evans, Gaston suffers from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and tries to hide it with his popularity and big ego, and when he doesn't get what he wants, his aggressive military persona takes over.

Besides, Cogsworth in object form is a table clock decked with military accoutrements like swords and cannons, and, during the storming of the castle, he acts like a real strategist. When his human form post-disenchantment was revealed, it was (as I suspected) an aged general, with an epauletted coat rife with medals and a monocle on his left eye, wearing a kaiser moustache that looks like the hands of his clock form. Some of his carving reflects the hair and epaulets of his human form, and said human form has Roman numerals on his buttons, like his clock markings, and an uneven mustache like his clock hands. Just imagine Sir Ian McKellen in a period uniform, with a kaiser moustache. The sole appearance of this human Cogsworth reminded me of his Iago in Trevor Nunn's Othello, but as a general instead of a non-commissioned officer! So, is this some kind of wish fulfillment? (For another Shakespearean actor allusion, aside from the equivalent one relating to Mrs. Potts, scroll all the way down to the bottom of this review!)

Lefou (and Stanley) out of the closet
I always had a pair of hunches about Lefou. This version certainly confirms them. That he's illiterate, but especially that he's gay and hangs around Gaston due to a feeling stronger than admiration or even bromance. The pudgy boy henchman in this live action film flaunts Gaston in a queer tone during the tavern song, and he most often wears his shoulder-long hair loose instead of tied up in a queue. The fact that both of them met in the military, and Lefou was most likely to be the manly man Gaston's orderly, is the perfect springboard for such feelings.
Fire-Forged Friends:

• With Gaston. They fought in the war together, and their close relationship is part of the reason Lefou is mostly oblivious to Gaston's cruelty.
• Ignored Enamoured Underling: He's this to Gaston in this adaptation.
• Ironic Name:
  • Le Fou translates to "The Fool", but in this incarnation he's actually the more sensible of the two.
  • It could be ironic in a completely different way - Le Fou also translates to 'madman' and in late 1700s France, any man who admitted to an attraction to other men was considered mad.

Too bad his beloved commanding officer is straight (aside from a total coward and a scoundrel).

• Later Lefou became fire-forged friends with Mrs. Potts. When he saves her from a height, they work together to defeat the villagers, befriending each other in the process; also to the point where Lefou confides to Mrs. Potts about his problems with Gaston, in which she comforts him by saying that he's too good for Gaston anyways.
• Love Makes You Evil: Maybe not "evil," but his feelings for Gaston allow him to be complicit in his scheming and to turn a blind eye to some of Gaston's nastier qualities. However, this is subverted, as Everyone Has Standards. Once Gaston threatens to have Lefou committed, and uses him as a human shield, Lefou comes to his senses and switches sides, ditching Gaston for good.
• Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal: He was already growing increasingly uneasy about Gaston's actions, but after Gaston uses him as a human shield and leaves him without helping him, Lefou officially switches sides. Lampshaded, when he comments to Mrs. Potts, "I used to be on Gaston's side, but we're so in a bad place right now."

During the storming of the Château de la Bête, Mrs. Potts told him "you're too good for him" for a good reason; as soprano Mme. de Garderobe attacked a trio of young villagers by wrapping them in court ladies' wigs and petticoats. While two of them were frightened upon seeing their reflections in de Garderobe's mirror, the third one, in pink, squeals like a little girl in delight, and gives Mme. de Garderobe a "thank you" smile before happily strutting off.
Right after the disenchantment, right after his commanding officer had plummeted to his death from that shattered parapet, during the ball, Lefou ditches his female partner and takes Stanley --the man who had liked wearing pink petticoats--, who had also ditched his lady and taken him out to dance with each other; these two were literally made for each other, and one of them needed (may I make a visual pun) coming out of the closet for this romance to blossom! Definitely, yet another gay OTP right when I expected it the least! SQUEEEE!!!
To start with, Lefou acts as a voice of reason for Gaston, whenever he tries to do (and eventually does) questionable deeds; as Gaston slowly becomes more deranged than usual, Lefou is shown struggling between his loyalty to him and his moral conscience. Finally, when Gaston used him as a Human Shield and leaves him to die, Lefou finally turns against him and performs a Heel–Face Turn to save Mrs. Potts' life, and even wholeheartedly joins the servants in fighting off the villagers after being comforted by her words.
Lefou is gay in this version of Disney's take on the story, with the unintentional Ho Yay present in the animated movie being actual Homoerotic Subtext here. Interestingly, this makes the character Disney's first official LGBT character in a work based on their animated canon.
Near the end of the film, when Gaston uses Lefou as a human shield to save himself, he realizes Gaston's true ugly nature and renounces his ties to him.

• While initially callous and belligerent like his friends, it can be assumed that this was a façade for Stanley to try and blend in with Tom and Dick and to hide his insecurity regarding his (implied) sexual preference which would have been extremely unacceptable in those days. Upon being dressed up in a glamorous pink ballgown, he immediately makes a Heel–Face Turn out of gratefulness at being put into clothes that he feels more comfortable being in. He also attends the ball hosted by Belle and the Prince at the end of the film, which suggests that he is now on good terms with Belle... and especially Lefou! <3 <3 <3 
• Pair the Spares: Lefou ends up dancing with Stanley, the villager who seemed to enjoy being Dragged into Drag by Madame de Garderobe.
• Ship Tease: Has this at the end when he dances with Stanley, hinting at developing feelings between the two.
• Straight Gay: Occasional over-the-top dramatics and nerdy physique aside, Lefou doesn't really display any stereotypical gay behavior. He's even an ex-soldier in this version!
• Understatement: After he switches sides, Lefou comments to Mrs. Potts that he and Gaston are "so in a bad place right now". This is clearly understating that Gaston threatened to have him institutionalized for protesting, used him as a Human Shield, and left him for dead.
• Ship Tease: Stanley has this at the end when he dances with Lefou, hinting at developing feelings between the two. He is briefly seen happily dancing with a woman until Stanley cuts in, much to his awe. <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 

What ever happened to their missing loved ones? The live action film confirms:
Belle's maman (mum): Died of the plague in Montmartre, when Belle was but months old. That's why she cannot remember (It took a trip to Paris with a magic book in the Château library to find out).
The royal couple (the prince's parents): the Queen died of the same plague that took Belle's mum, while her crowned husband forced the heartbroken boy prince to grow up (Frederick-William-style parenting implied). Remember that in the family portrait, the Beast has clawed at the King's face, but the Queen remains intact? Mrs. Potts: When the Master lost his mother, and his cruel father took that sweet innocent lad, and twisted him up to be just like him... we did nothing.
Mr. Potts: unlike the other missing parents above, he is alive and well, living in Villeneuve all along until the court and village make peace in the end and his wife and child are disenchanted. There is also a Mrs. Cogsworth: that unpleasant Breton shrew that made her uniformed husband wish he were a clock once more!

Beauty and the Bard
This Belle is not only well-read passionate about literature: she's an outright bardolater, her favourite play being Romeo and Juliet. She also quotes sonnets in the wintry palace gardens. The Beast is revealed to be equally-well read, having had an expensive education, and to share a favourite author with her, even making a little pun about the fact that some of the library books are in Greek (referencing "it's all Greek to me!"). Furthermore, the interior of Mme. de Garderobe's upper cabinet which also serves as her face looks like a miniature stage, with curtains, lights, and what appear to be tiny seats. (Considering that she is a primadonna as a human, with a massive ribcage to give her that singing voice, it's no surprise that she became a wardrobe!)

First names revealed (and more Shakespearean Easter eggs!)
When reunited with their estranged spouses, the châtelaine is revealed to be named Beatrice Potts, while the general's full name is Henry Cogsworth. And I just squeed like Belle when first entering the palace library: I recognized actor allusions to Dame Emma Thompson's famous role in Much Ado about Nothing and a young Sir Ian McKellen having played the title role in Henry V (another story with military men and royals set in France) once or twice in his younger years!
This may have something to do with the fact that this film was shot in the UK in 2016 and many of the leading cast (not only Obi-Ewan, Kline, McKellen, and Emma Thompson, but those who played the leading characters' deceased parents as well) are thespians with a Shakespearean background...