Disney’s live action adaptation of its animated hit Beauty and the Beast sashays into Indian cinemas on March 19. Directed by Bill Condon (Mr. Turner, Dreamgirls, Kinsey), the movie stars Emma Watson as Belle, the merchant’s daughter who becomes the prisoner of the fearsome Beast (Dan Stevens) who lurks in a magic castle. Belle soon learns that appearances are deceptive, and an unusual romance develops between the maiden and the monster.
Beauty and the Beast has been in the news since its first teaser, with much of the attention devoted to the lavish production design, the set of Beast’s castle, and the costumes. The plot hews closely to the 1991 animated film, which is one of Disney’s biggest successes, and includes the original score as well as tunes not used in the animated movie.
All versions are based on La Belle et la Bete, written by Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve in 1740. Condon has cited Jean Cocteau’s fabulous 1946 adaptation as one of the inspirations for his movie, especially in the sequence in which Belle enters the castle for the first time and meets its magical inhabitants.
Dan Stevens, who plays Beast, is a British television and stage actor whose credits include the shows Downton Abbey, High Maintenance and Frankenstein and the plays Arcadia, The Vortex and Every Good Boy Deserves Favor.
Luke Evans steps into the role of the nasty chauvinist Gaston, the former soldier who pursues Belle against her wishes and vows to hunt down the beast.
Gaston has a suitor too – he is male, and the first openly gay character in the strictly heterosexual Disney universe. LeFou is played by Josh Gad. This progressive move by Disney has already provoked a demand for a ban in Russia.
Among the highlights of the animated version were the anthropomorphised objects that live with Beast in the castle, including the candelabra Lumiere, the clock Cogsworth, the teapot Mrs Potts, the feather duster Madame Garderobe and the teacup Chip. All these characters reappear in the 2017 film, alongside a new member – the harpsichord Cadenza, voiced by Stanley Tucci.
Candles and candlelight dinners play their part in creating the requisite mood for the encounters between Belle and Beast. Over 8,700 candles were used during the production of the 2017 film.
The ballroom floor in Beast’s castle is based on a pattern found on the ceiling of the Benedictine Abbey in Braunau in Germany. The glass chandeliers in the ballroom are replicas of actual chandeliers from the Palace of Versailles.
Belle’s iconic yellow dress was created out of 180 feet of satin organza and embellished with 2,160 Swarovski crystals. In an interview to Entertainment Weekly, costume designer Jacqueline Durran, who has worked in Vera Drake (2004), Pride & Prejudice (2005), Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011) Macbeth (2015), said that the dress was sculpted in order to allow Watson to move freely. “There is a cage under some parts of it,” Durran said. “But mainly it’s layers of organza that just give it a lift, for it to have lightness.”
