La Belle et la Bete (1946)

Fig. 1

Beauty and the beast is a strange and wondrous film in which a post WW2 France is in pieces and we follow a family in crisis as they have lost all their wealth and are on the verge of bankruptcy. The father of the family is a business man who sends ships to foregn countries to retrieve goods and riches, there are 3 sisters, 2 of which are only concerned of their wealth and status, and the third is Belle. Belle is an almost Cinderella type character as she is the only one who does the cleaning and cooking for the family and is completely devoted to her father. After traveling back from the docks at night, he father stumbles across what seems to be a deserted mansion and enters until day so he can return. Just before leaving he picks a rose for Belle, and then encounters The Beast who tells him stealing a rose is a crime punishable by death. After pleading, the beast offers an ultimatum, return in 3 days or send one of your daughters in your place. Of course Belle is the one who offers to go in her father’s place and moves to the mansion, and so the story begins.

This original film is very different to that of the Disney film which many of us are familiar with, although some traits from the film are carried on to the Disney version the mood of the 1946 version is very different. The film is very much a love-strung fantasy as ‘Director Jean Cocteau, who also wrote the screenplay based on the fairy tale by 18th century writer Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont (which she adapted from an original story by Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve), created a visually stunning world in which to populate his characters. Even seen today, the technical and artistic achievements of the film are quite impressive.’(Lloyd 2010) Once scene which the film is most noted for is that in which Belle first enters the Beast’s mansion and is seen running down a corridor with net curtains blowing in the wind, and then she is floating through the mansions corridors without even moving her feet.  ‘It is one of the most magical of all films. Before the days of computer effects and modern creature makeup, here is a fantasy alive with trick shots and astonishing effects.’ (Ebert 1999) The scene is regarded as a triumph in cinema as such a flawless and fascinating sequence was created without the use of computer graphics or anything of that matter, all that was used to create this was some camera techniques which are sadly neglected today.

Jean Cocteau created a film which was not just a fantasy film about a girl who fell in love with a beast, but it holds much deeper, more adult and darker themes. ‘Much of the film's deep magic comes from Cocteau's sense of himself as a vulnerable beast-in-love: In his mid-50s when he made the film, Cocteau was openly gay in an often viciously homophobic post-Vichy France, an opium addict and plagued by skin-disfiguring eczema.’ (Cavitch 2011) Cocteau chose to represent his fears and vulnerabilities through the Beast and this gives the film a much darker theme, as Belle could be seen as France itself, and Cocteau’s fantasy of it openly accepting what he was.

This film combines the love story of a woman and a beast with that of a post ww2 France and the representation of one man’s hope for acceptance, and is critically acclaimed for its amazing filmic techniques and above all that is is a brilliant film to watch.

Bibliography

Cavitch, M. (2011) http://www.slantmagazine.com/dvd/review/beauty-and-the-beast/2048 (Accessed on 5/10/11)

Ebert, R (1999) http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/19991226/REVIEWS08/912260301/1023 (Accessed on 5/10/11)

Lloyd, C (2010) http://www.thefilmyap.com/2010/08/02/beauty-and-the-beast-1946/ (Accessed on 5/20/22)

Image List

Figure 1 http://www.organicmechanic.org/2006/01/la-belle-et-la-bte/