Beauty and the Beast (Fantasy)
Director: Juraj Herz
Producer: Filmové Studio Barrandov
Screenwriter: Ota Hofman,Juraj Herz
Cinematographer: Jiří Macháně
Composer: Petr Hapka
Editor: Jaromír Janáček
Production Designer: Vladimír Labský
Costume Designer: Irena Greifová
Key Cast: Vít Olmer,Josef Laufer,Milan Hein,Marta Hrachovinová,Václav Voska,Zdena Studenková,Vlastimil Harapes,Zuzana Kocúriková,Jan Přeučil,Jana Brejchová,Karel Augusta,Josef Langmiler
Forget talking teacups and comic candelabra: you’ll never think about the classic fairytale the same after you’ve experienced Juraj Herz’s macabre, subversive fantasy.
It’s a tale as old as time: a beautiful young peasant woman trades places with her father as the prisoner of a hideous beast, only to fall in love with him and uncover his princely human form. Under the eye of Czech New Wave auteur Juraj Herz (The Cremator, MIFF 1970), however, the leonine charmer of both Disney’s musical and Cocteau’s La Belle et la Bête (MIFF 1952) is transformed into an avian grotesque – portrayed with skilful physicality by ballet dancer Vlastimil Harapes – complete with a menacing cloak, gnarled beak and razor-sharp talons.
After surviving imprisonment in a concentration camp as a 10-year-old, Herz’s exposure to unspeakable violence and cruelty haunted his body of work. Death, decay and debauchery are prominent from the opening sequence in the village, while the beast is a bloodthirsty animal who struggles against the evil urge to kill his beautiful prisoner. As terrifying as it is enchanting, Herz’s unforgettable film peels back our nostalgia for Charles Perrault’s fairytale to restore its unsettling, unresolved terror.
“Lays bare the perverse tissue lurking under the skin of a story so often misconstrued as romance – or whose romance is routinely debrided of the inexorable risk, delusion, and self-abnegation of love.” – Reverse Shot
This screening will be introduced by film critic Angelica Jade Bastién (Vulture), who will host a panel discussion with critics Kate Jinx and Rebecca Harkins-Cross following the film.
Angelica Jade Bastién is a Southern-born critic and essayist for New York magazine’s site, Vulture, where she covers film and pop culture. She has written for The Atlantic, Harper’s Bazaar, Criterion Channel Blu-ray releases and many other publications. She was nominated for a National Magazine Award in 2022. Her work can also be found on her newsletter, Madwomen & Muses. She lives in Chicago with her two cats.
Kate Jinx is a writer, critic and film curator. She is a Senior Programmer at the Melbourne International Film Festival, Founding Program Director of Sydney’s Golden Age Cinema and host of the culture podcast See Also.
Rebecca Harkins-Cross is a writer and cultural critic. Her work has been published widely in periodicals and journals including The Monthly, The Saturday Paper, Sydney Review of Books, Meanjin and Griffith Review. Her monograph on Lucrecia Martel’s The Headless Woman is forthcoming with Fireflies Press. She lives in Naarm, where she is a lecturer in creative writing at RMIT University.