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Title: Haunting Fairytale and Social Parable
Review: An ageless story, beautifully filmed and acted. Based on a fairytale from the same region of France that gave us Cinderella and Beauty and the Beast, Cocteau used this story as a parable for the Nazi invasion of France. Evil arrives at peaceful castle where a pious nobleman and his daughter live content, but emotionally devoid, lives. The devil sends to envoys to disrupt, tempt, and destroy the tranquility of such a happy place. But will the soulless envoys find more than an easy capitulation, and is there some hope left in them in the end? Cocteau creates a visually stunning and emotional commentary on occupied Vichy France right under the Nazi noses, and leaves us a masterpiece.
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