When the live-action Beauty and the Beast remake was released in 2017,
the response was overall positive.
It seized 2nd place in the 2017 worldwide box office,
and was nominated for the Academy Awards for Best Costume Design and Production Design.
But compared to 1991 original that was nominated for Best Picture,
the general consensus among critics was that the remake was a step back.
Among Disney’s live-action remakes of its animated films,
The Jungle Book and Cinderella boast beautiful and interesting visuals,
not to mention their likeable characters and tight storytelling.
They were even praised for having surpassed their originals.
But the live-action Beauty and the Beast was criticized for
not taking any chances,
overly relying on CGI,
and focusing solely on fancy visuals.
It ended up being called "hollow" by many.
What could have led to these criticisms that
the remake was a lesser film than the original?
What did the director gloss over?
In this episode, I will be looking at the costumes from the remake,
and how it relates to the criticisms it received.
Please note that this video contains spoilers of the film.
Beauty and the Beast is a story of how Belle, who lives in small town and dreams of adventure,
meets the Beast, a prince who was cursed due to his cruel, selfish nature,
and how they learn to love each other.
Belle's true love lifts the curse, making the Beast regain his former self as a human prince.
The remake’s costume designer Jacqueline Durran
is a two-time Oscar winner,
and has a wealth of experience in period pieces.
Often working alongside Joe Wright in films like
Pride and Prejudice, Atonement, and Anna Karenina,
Durran has been praised for her artistic costumes that
express the characters and story,
while giving nod to the time period and source materials.
And like Durran's past work, her costumes in Beauty and the Beast
do reflect and add to the Belle’s character from the original in many ways.
While borrowing the blue dress from the original, Durran added boots to show how Belle is highly active.
Skirts were adjusted for riding horses,
with a book-sized pocket for Belle who is an avid reader.
Made with fabrics of various patterns, textures and colours,
this detailed dress seems to be in line with Durran’s previous projects.
But the real problem arises once Belle enters the village.
The costumes in the live-action remake are beautiful their own way,
but they do not align with the scene’s context or the story at all.
Let's compare Beauty and the Beast’s “Belle” scenes.
“Belle” is a crucial moment that communiates to the audience
what Belle wants and how she is perceived by others.
Feeling out of place in the town, Belle wants to leave
and dreams of a different life.
And the townspeople are puzzled with Belle.
In order to differentiate Belle from others,
the 1991 film dressed Belle in blue
and everyone else in various shades of red, yellow and green.
So in any shot, Belle ends up looking conspicuous
and doesn’t blend in with the townspeople.
No matter how far she is, her blue dress makes her stand out.
The scene takes place during sunrise and casts a slight red hue,
but Belle’s dress is unaffected.
But in the 2017 remake, the townspeople appear in all colours of the rainbow.
Blue, which was only used selectively on Belle,
now can be found on countless townspeople.
While these vibrant, various colours show the lively and busy atmosphere of the town,
now there's no element that differentiates Belle from others.
In the 1991 film, Belle arrives at a bookshop to return a book,
and picks her favourite book.
The cover of the book is blue.
Belle holds this book and sings about her favourite part,
a meeting between a disguised prince and the oblivious protagonist.
In this book's illustration, the protagonist is wearing a blue dress.
Reflecting Belle with its story and colours,
this book is a crucial device that foreshadows the film's narrative.
But in the 2017 remake, Belle is holding a normal-looking brown book.
The film does not even show the illustrations inside.
Since the remake erased the book's importance of telling Belle's desire and future,
this part simply ended up just emphasizing how Belle likes reading.
There is a reason why the costume of Gaston is also worth looking at.
In the original, Gaston wears red, similar to many townspeople.
But Gaston's red has a higher saturation than the reds of others.
Le Fou is wearing a red vest,
but the red is darker and has a lower saturation.
Gaston wears a colour that connects him with the townspeople,
but since he is a highly admired town hero,
he wears a brighter shade of red to catch the audience's attentino.
Gaston's red also creates a contrast from Belle, and clearly shows their conflict.
But in the live-action remake, Gaston's red is only a part of his costume,
and it is even similar to many townspeople's clothes.
In a scene that is supposed to introduce
the film's key characters and their roles in the town,
the costume is doing absolutely nothing.
While Belle is looking inconspicuous in the market,
the townspeople are singing "She doesn't quite fit in."
Ironic, seeing how Belle fits right into the crowd.
Using blue to show the divide between Belle and the townspeople in “Belle”
reappears when the mob refuses to understand Belle and heads out to kill the Beast.
When the townspeople try to take Belle’s father Maurice to an insane asylum,
the blue symbolically shows how Belle stands alone against the entire town.
But in the 2017 remake, Belle is still wearing the yellow dress.
Considering she had to rush to her father, it is fitting to the situation.
However, it instead sacrificed the 1991 film's
intention of contrasting Belle from the townspeople.
The remake's ignorance in the colours can also be seen in the grand finale.
In the 1991 film, Belle is the most conspicuous person in scene
because of her bright, golden dress.
Even though the camera pulls away from them,
the protagonist Belle is still visible.
But in the remake, it is the Beast who catches the audience’s eyes.
Despite the red floral patterns,
Belle is wearing a white dress like others.
So in wide shots, Belle becomes easily lost in the crowd.
Maurice is seen sketching this scene,
but his own daughter is barely visible in it.
Meanwhile, the Beast stands out from the crowd
thanks to his clothes made out of a shiny blue fabric.
Linking Belle with the colour blue was a significant setting in the original.
The only place the audience can find blue
outside the village was the Beast’s castle.
Like the illustration in Belle’s blue book foretold,
it implies the Beast's castle is Belle's space.
The colour of the Beast’s eyes was blue,
which was emphasized throughout the film.
Belle was able to recognize the Beast in human form
because she noticed his same blue eyes.
But this colour that expresses the link between Belle and the Beast
ended up being wasted in the live-action remake.
Bill Condon, the director of the 2017 remake,
is a screenwriter and director.
He has directed films across various genres,
and wrote the screenplay to Chicago, Dreamgirls, and The Greatest Showman.
Adapting and directing a beloved classic would have been a significant burden to him.
Same can be said for Durran.
She had to create costumes based on the original,
take the setting and time period into account,
meet the demands of the cast and director,
and satisfy expectations of the audience
who remembers the original 1991 film.
But sadly Durran’s costumes misused and
left out the most crucial device in the film: blue.
Without the device that could have added more meaning,
the costumes now only look superficial.
The remake is said to have inspired by Rococo style.
And just like Rococo style, which was criticized for being superficial,
the live-action remake was similarly criticized for being superficial.
It is a great shame, considering the past films Durran worked on.
Could Durran have not seen the director's mind?
Or did Bill Condon glossed over the significance of blue
and demanded Durran with something different?
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This was Show Me the Director's Mind,
당감마.