The Beautician and the Beast

Infobox Film
name = The Beautician and the Beast


caption = The one-sheet promotional poster for film.
director = Ken Kwapis
producer = Todd Graff
Hawk Koch
Roger Birnbaum
Fran Drescher
Peter Marc Jacobson
writer = Todd Graff
narrator =
starring = Fran Drescher
Timothy Dalton
music = Cliff Eidelman
cinematography = Peter Lyons Collister
editing = Jon Poll
distributor = Paramount Pictures
released = flagicon|USA February 7 1997
flagicon|Australia June 19 1997
runtime = 105 minutes
country = United States
language = English
budget = US$16 millioncite web |url=http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=beauticianandthebeast.htm |title=The Beautician and the Beast (1997) |accessdate=2008-07-05 |work=Box Office Mojo]
gross = US$11,486,880
preceded_by =
followed_by =
website =
amg_id = 1:154605~T0
imdb_id = 0118691

"The Beautician and the Beast" is a 1997 family/romantic comedy film directed by Ken Kwapis and starring Fran Drescher and Timothy Dalton as the title characters. The story follows the misadventures of a New York City beautician who is (mistakenly) hired as the school teacher for the children of the president of a small Eastern European country. The story is similar to that of "The King and I", "The Sound of Music", and "Evita", with elements also reminiscent of the sitcom "The Nanny", for which Drescher is most famous.

Plot

An American beautician named Joy Miller (Fran Drescher) teaches students to groom hair, but is put out of business when one of her students tries to hide a cigarette and ignites some hair spray, eventually leading to the school burning down. While searching for work, she is mistaken for an academic teacher by a diplomatic representative (Ian McNeice) of a small Eastern European country called Slovetzia. She becomes the tutor of a Stalinesque dictator's three children. The authoritarian president Boris Pochenko (Timothy Dalton) is very fierce and generally is thought to be a "beast". As the beautician becomes a friend to the children, she also helps mold the president's image to appear more friendly, and an unlikely love story emerges.

Production

According to the DVD commentary, the original title for the film was "The King and Oy", a direct reference to the 1956 musical film "The King and I", but it had to be changed as they could not obtain the rights from 20th Century Fox to use it. [cite web |url=http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118691/trivia |title=Trivia for The Beautician and the Beast (1997) |accessdate=2008-07-05 |work=Internet Movie Database]

The film was shot in Beverly Hills (Greystone Mansion), Los Angeles, and Prague. [cite web |url=http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118691/locations |title=Filming locations for The Beautician and the Beast (1997) |accessdate=2008-07-05 |work=Internet Movie Database]

lovetzia

Slovetzia, the fictional landlocked country depicted in this film is a tiny state (possibly qualifying as a European microstate) bordered by Romania, Ukraine, and Slovakia; situated roughly in Trans-Carpathia, an actual region of Ukraine. The republic is a post-communist Eastern European dictatorship. The national flag of Slovetzia is a red over (medium) blue bicolor with a black boar's head with white tusks. The ratio of the flag is approximately 2:3. The presidential flag of Slovetzia seen on the president's car is square.

lovetzian language

Slovetzian, a fictional Slavic language, is spoken by the children of the president and other characters in the film. The language is written in Latin letters as seen in the film.

Though not a linguistic expert himself and a monolingual English speaker, director Ken Kwapis wanted to create a fictional Slavic language for the fictional Slavic country of Slovetzia. He hired dialect coach Francie Brown who worked with the director and the actors to create a "Slovetzian language and accent".

Kwapis picked sounds he liked from Czech and Russian, with the former predominating, as the film was mostly filmed in the Czech Republic, in and around its capital Prague. The language also included elements of Romanian (a Romance language and not a Slavic language) and Hungarian (a Uralic language and not an Indo-European language).

Response

This film was generally panned by the critics, including a scathing review by Susan Wloszczyna of "USA Today". The irony is not lost, as the character of Boris Pochenko lambasts the negative coverage of his country by the American press (in particular "USA Today") in the film.

ee also

*List of fictional countries
*List of fictional European countries
*List of constructed languages

References

External links

*imdb title|0118691
* [http://www.cinemareview.com/static-htm/029701n2.htm/ "The Beautician and the Beast" at www.cinemareview.com]