BEAUTY AND THE BEAST
France, 1946, 92 minutes, Black and white.
Jean Marais, Josette Day, Marcel Andre.
Directed by Jean Cocteau.
Beauty and the Beast was written, produced and directed by artist and playwright Jean Cocteau. Cocteau had made the classic avant garde short, The Blood of a Poet, and made his own version of the Orpheus and Eurydice myth, Orphee.
This version of Beauty and the Beast is considered a classic, beautiful black and white photography, exquisite 17th and 18th century sets with a touch of fantasy and magic. There is a haunting score by Georges Auric. The editing and pace, the sometimes use of slow-motion photography all combine to give the atmosphere of the fairy tale blending with reality and imagination. Jean Marais is an elegant and sorrowful Beast, a figure of mythology, a touch of the animal and brutality but yet human eyes and dignified decorum. Josette Day is the attractive Beauty.
The film follows the fairy tale in its essence - the impoverished father, the arrogant sisters, Beauty reduced to a servant like Cinderella, the father getting lost and taking the rose back to his daughter (which she had requested), the Beast as the owner of the chateau and making the condition that the father send Beauty back to him on pain of death. Beauty comes, resists the request of the Beast to marry him. the Beast allows her to return home as her father is dying - jealous suitors take the key of the treasure house of the Beast. She returns in compassion to the Beast, agrees to marry him just as one of the intruders is killed by the live statue of Diana. The Beast is transformed into the hero.
Psychologists have long interpreted Beauty and the Beast as a myth of the masculine and feminine, Jung's animus and anima. The theme of the shadow of men and women is also strongly drawn with the animal Beast, the magic horse, the theme of leaving one's father and standing on one's own feet.
Other versions of the story are the erotic interpretation by Walerian Borowyzck, Czech interpretations of the myth, a George C. Scott and Trish Van Devere telemovie and the Oscar-nominated Disney version of 1991.
1.The status of this film as a classic? Its plot and fairy tale? The black and white photography, editing and pace, the musical score, the performances?
2.The work and sensibility of Jean Cocteau, the writing of the film, the eliciting of sympathetic performances, the delicacy of touch, the atmosphere of magic? The psychological depth?
3.The fairy tale, its continued popularity? The surface plot and its effectiveness? The deeper layers of understanding of character, plot and of personal interaction? Psychological insights?
4.The black and white photography, the 17th century settings? The French village, the French chateau? The forest? Costumes and decor? Touches of magic? The make up of the Beast?
5.The household and the arrogant daughters, their vanity, going out into the town, their being humiliated and returning? Beauty being forced to do the work? The young men in the household, her suitors? The irresponsibility? Beauty's rejection of them?
6.The father, the failure of his business enterprises? Bankruptcy? The reaction of his children? The change in fortune, his going away to do business? The older daughters and their requests for monkeys and parrots? Beauty and her request for the rose? The journey, the failure, the return? Lost in the forest? The magic of the chateau, the hands beckoning and the candlesticks? The long corridors? The food offered? His waking up, morning and the ordinary day? His plucking of the rose and the confrontation with the Beast?
7.The condition of the father giving up one of his daughters and taking the rose? His sadness, riding the horse and it taking him straight home? The explanation and the story for the household? the men's reaction and them wanting to kill the Beast? The haughty sisters and their ignoring the issues and blaming Beauty? Beauty and her decision that she must go? The rose as the gift for her? Her taking the horse and its magically taking her back to the chateau?
8.Beauty and the Beast: Beauty in herself, her character? At the chateau, the beckoning hands, the candles? Encountering the Beast - not looking into his eyes? The routine of life at the chateau, the meals, the garden? Her homesickness? Her overhearing the Beast and his sorrow, seeing his smoking hands? His revealing his secrets to her? The proposal of marriage? Her resistance?
9.Her father's illness, the magic mirror - the Beast allowing her to return, the conditions? The glove, the horse Her story, compassion for her father? Her suitors and their anger at the Beast, greed? Taking the key? Their plundering the treasure - death?
10.Beauty and her return, her compassion for the Beast, his going to the river, almost dead? Her reviving him? His transformation into the Prince? The delicacy of the happy ever after ending?
11.The character of the Beast, his curse, as animal, as human? His attitudes towards Beauty, courtesy, love? Melancholic to death? His transformation?
12.The portrait of the father, business, his children, his love for Beauty, his illness? The contrast withe the sisters and their arrogance? The young men and their irresponsibility, proposals to Beauty, violence?
13.The profound psychological truth of fairy tales? The quality of Cocteau's presentation and interpretation?
