Сұлушыл мен Бегемот: 1997 жылғы комедиялық фильм

1997 film by Ken Kwapis

The Beautician and the Beast is a 1997 American romantic comedy film directed by Ken Kwapis, written by Todd Graff, and starring Fran Drescher, Timothy Dalton, Lisa Jakub, Ian McNeice, and Patrick Malahide. It tells the story of a New York City beautician who is hired, under the false assumption that she is a science teacher, to tutor the four children of a dictator of a fictional Eastern European nation, played by Timothy Dalton. The film deals with the theme of cultural differences, and takes inspiration from other stories like Beauty and the Beast, The King and I, Evita, and The Sound of Music. Produced by Drescher's company High School Sweethearts in partnership with Paramount Pictures, The Beautician and the Beast was her first starring role in a film. Drescher chose Graff to write the screenplay because of his familiarity with her style of humor. She pitched and sold the project as a vehicle to transition her career in television to film. Filming took place during the fall of 1996 in Greystone Mansion in Beverly Hills, California, and Sychrov Castle in the Czech Republic. Kwapis consulted with dialect coach Francie Brown to create the fictional language Slovetzian used in the film. Cliff Eidelman composed the soundtrack which features the London Metropolitan Orchestra. The Beautician and the Beast was released on February 7, 1997 to generally negative reviews. Critics panned the story as more appropriate for a sitcom rather than a feature film, and called it a poor example of the romantic comedy genre. Drescher and Dalton received mixed reviews for their performances; Drescher was nominated for the Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Actress. The Beautician and the Beast was a box office bomb, grossing roughly $11.5 million against a production budget of $16 million.

The film opens with an animated sequence in which a prince awakens a princess with a kiss, though she rejects his romantic advances and runs away. The scene shifts to live action beautician Joy Miller, who teaches at a New York City beauty school. One of her students accidentally sets the classroom ablaze by igniting hair spray with a cigarette. She escorts her class and some caged animals to safety, prompting the New York Post to run a headline praising Joy as a hero. Ira Grushinsky, a diplomat from the Eastern European country Slovetzia, mistakes Joy for a science teacher after seeing a newspaper photo. He hires her as a tutor for the four children of Boris Pochenko, Slovetzia's dictator. However, she misinterprets his job offer as teaching hairstyling. Although she has never heard of the country, she accepts the job despite her initial hesitation. After arriving at Slovetzia, Ira is surprised to discover Joy's true identity, but she convinces him to keep it a secret. Despite making a bad first impression with Boris, Joy gets along with his children Katrina, Karl, Masha, and Yuri. While teaching them about life outside Slovetzia, she also helps them to gain confidence in themselves. She learns about Katrina's relationship with Alek, the leader of the youth rebellion, and encourages Karl to pursue his dream of becoming an artist. Joy frequently clashes with Pochenko, who is disturbed by her independence and his inability to frighten her. Joy and Katrina go to a nightclub which also operates as a base for those planning the rebellion; Prime Minister Leonid Kleis follows the pair and arrests Alek. Growing closer to Joy, Boris confesses to her that he wants to change his reputation as a "beast" among Western nations; she encourages him to form closer relationships with his citizens and shaves his mustache. During a trip to a factory, Joy realizes that Slovetzia lacks trade unions and encourages the workers to hold a strike. She also arranges a secret meeting between Katrina and Alek in his cell. Despite Leonid's advice to fire Joy, she convinces Boris to hold a party for visiting emissaries during a summit meeting to debut his new image; he places her in charge of the preparations. As part of the summit, Boris considers releasing Alek despite Leonid's disapproval. On the day of the event, Joy reveals her identity to Boris, but he does not care about her credentials. He thanks her for bringing happiness to him and his family. During the party, Leonid confronts Joy about her role in Katrina's secret meetings with Alek and threatens to have her arrested for treason. Following Boris' decision to keep Alek in jail, Joy informs him that she had set up meetings between Alek and Katrina; he argues with Joy over her meddling in Slovetzia's political affairs. She quits and returns to New York City. Over the course of several weeks, Leonid quietly takes over administrative duties and signs death sentences in Boris' name. When Ira informs Boris that Leonid is usurping his power, he strips Leonid of his duties and arrests him on charges of treason. Boris reunites with Joy in New York City and informs her that he has freed Alek and agreed to hold free elections in Slovetzia. Boris kisses Joy after admitting his feelings for her.

Fran Drescher developed and pitched the concept for The Beautician and the Beast, which she said was a homage to the musical The King and I (1951). Drescher was an executive producer for the film, which was handled through her production company High School Sweethearts. The writer Todd Graff was attached to The Beautician and the Beast during its pitch; Drescher chose him since they had a similar sense of humor and he was already "familiar with her voice and what type of dialogue suits her best". Roger Birnbaum and Peter Marc Jacobson were also executive producers for the film, and Howard W. Koch, Jr. was a producer alongside Graff. Worried about the audience's response to her move to film, Drescher modeled Joy after her previous performances; she explained: "It was a specific and strategic choice to not have the audience have to work too hard to accept me as another character. I wanted it to be an easy transition so they wouldn't have to bite off more than they can chew." He described the film as "more romantic than comic" and wanted it to introduce Drescher's vulnerability and "romantic side" alongside her "loud and brassy" comedy. Timothy Dalton was announced as part of the cast in July 1996. Although Drescher had initially imagined Kevin Kline as Boris, he was unavailable. The A. V. Clubs Will Harris classified The Beautician and the Beast as one of Dalton's lighter and more comedic projects. During a 2014 interview, Dalton shared that he had a positive experience during the filming and praised Drescher for her comic timing. Describing herself as "very protective" of Dalton during the filming, Drescher helped him with the comedy and ensured that he had enough funny lines. The scenes in the Czech Republic were shot in the fall of 1996; during filming, Drescher hired a chef from Tuscany to prepare meals for her. it contains influences from Czech, Russian, and Hungarian. Its final cut is 107 minutes long. Critics have compared Boris to Joseph Stalin. Hunter believed the comparison was intentional given his "tunic, brush cut, inscrutable expression and pious delta of mustache", but added that these markers are quickly dropped to emphasize his transformation into a more democratic leader and "a wild and crazy guy". while others believed The Nanny was its inspiration. The film was likened to the stage musicals The King and I and The Sound of Music (1959) due to its focus on gender and cultural differences. Barry Monush, a researcher for the Paley Center for Media, highlighted the scene in which Joy creates clothing from Ralph Lauren bedding as the most obvious allusion to The Sound of Music. and music columnist David Hirsch wrote that the movie's soundtrack was similar to those in 1940s films. Katrina's relationship with Alek was likened to Juliet's romance with Romeo in the play Romeo and Juliet, while the opening animation was seen as a parody of the Disney films Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) and Sleeping Beauty (1959).

The soundtrack for The Beautician and the Beast was composed by Cliff Eidelman and recorded at the CTS Studios in Wembley, United Kingdom. Its 19 songs feature the London Metropolitan Orchestra. The score incorporates elements of Russian classical music and waltz. Milan Records released the soundtrack on February 11, 1997, as an audio CD; it was later made available through the music streaming service Spotify. The soundtrack received mixed critical reviews. Hirsch praised it as a "charmingly old fashioned romantic score". The film had received a PG film rating from the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) following a review at a Paramount screening room in Los Angeles. Emanuel Levy believed the film was intended for "the Valentine's Day dating crowd". It earned $11,486,880 during its theatrical run; in 2015, Box Office Mojo estimated the film made $22,548,300 when adjusted for ticket price inflation. The VHS release debuted at number 38 on the Billboard Top Video Sales chart on March 21, 1998. Drescher provided audio commentary for the DVD version, which was released on June 24, 2003. The Beautician and the Beast was made available for purchase on Amazon Prime Video; and HBO Max upon its launch in 2020. In a 2020 interview, Drescher said the film continues to provide revenue for Paramount Pictures and has developed a following.

The Beautician and the Beast received primarily negative responses, holding a score of 22% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 23 reviews. Roger Ebert gave the film two stars, praising Drescher's performance but saying audiences would be unable to empathize with her character, since "we never feel she's really uncertain, insecure or vulnerable". On the other hand, TV Guides Maitland McDonagh and IGN's Arnold T. Blumberg considered The Beautician and the Beast to be inoffensive and fluffy enough to be enjoyable. Reviewers criticized the film as too similar to a sitcom, including The New York Times' Stephen Holden who said Kwapis and Graff did not elevate the material enough to justify a theatrical release. In an Entertainment Weekly article, Lisa Schwarzbaum wrote that The Beautician and the Beast and the 1997 film Fools Rush In were "hampered, to greater or lesser degree, by the synthetic conceits of their stretched out stories". and believed the film was a poor example of the romantic comedy genre. The San Diego Readers Duncan Shepherd dismissed The Beautician and the Beast as an "inverted and cut rate Ninotchka". However, in the same year, Lauren Le Vine for the same publication considered the film a classic, and praised the chemistry between Drescher and Dalton as an "awkward friction". Drescher's performance received mixed reviews. Emanuel Levy praised Drescher as "a warm, funny and likable performer", although he believed she was too old to play an ingénue. Levy likened her voice and Jewish mannerisms to Fanny Brice and Barbra Streisand. In more negative comparisons, Jeff Vice called Drescher and Dalton inferior actors to Deborah Kerr and Yul Brynner, respectively,

Critics also had mixed reviews for Dalton's performance. The Washington Posts Rita Kempley praised Dalton for his campy style, and the Deseret News Jeff Vice wrote that he had "well chosen facial expressions and some subtle nuances". Maitland McDonagh considered Dalton too serious, however, believing he cast "a damper on the strenuously lighthearted goings on". In the Lincoln Journal Star, a writer said Dalton had a "constipated scowl", which they felt was an "appropriate mood for sitting through The Beautician and the Beast''".