Beauty and the Beast (French May 2016)

Madame Beaumont’s 1756 fairy tale “Beauty and the Beast” has been adapted into classics such as Jean Cocteau’s postwar black-and-white cinematic poetry (1946) and the 1991 Walt Disney animation. How can it find new life in yet another film adaptation in 2014? Cool hottie Léa Seydoux (Blue is the Warmest Color) and wild wolf Vincent Cassel (Black Swan) add thawing sexiness to the tale of cross-species love. The film begins as a bedtime story: A widowed rich merchant has three sons, three daughters, and three ships. A violent storm sinks his fortune and forces the family to start a new life in the countryside. Only the youngest daughter Belle is contented. Belle wants nothing except a rose. One day, the merchant gets lost and stumbles across the magical castle of the Beast. He is sentenced to death when he steals a rose for his favorite daughter. Belle sacrifices herself in place of her father and discovers the Beast’s tortured past in dreams. In the magical realm, Belle exchanges a dance for seeing her family one last time. When Belle tries to escape, the Beast pins her down on a lake of ice…Can Belle’s heaving bosom and pure heart save the cursed Beast?