Plot Details: This opinion reveals everything about the movie's plot.
Long before Disney took a whack at the old French fable in 1991, Jean Cocteau directed what many consider to be the definitive version of Beauty and the Beast. Still, there’s little point in arguing the relative merits of Disney’s singing teacups and Cocteau’s dark, brooding adaptation because the target audiences really only overlap in adolescence. Cocteau’s version will have little appeal for younger children, especially those who are not French-speaking. La Belle et la Bête is really an adult version of the fairy tale, though not in the “XXX” sense of adult cinema. Not even “X.”
Historical Background: Jean Cocteau (1889-1963) was something of a Renaissance man – at least within the arts domain. Born into a wealthy Parisian family, he had both the talent and the wherewithal to develop a wide range of expressive capabilities. At various times, he was a poet, novelist, playwright, ballet writer, painter, sculptor, and filmmaker. While many a dilettante might dabble in as much, Cocteau was exceedingly accomplished in at least several of those categories. He published his first book of poems, Aladdin’s Lamp, when he was just nineteen and always considered himself first and foremost a poet. He published his first novel when he was twenty-eight and his two best ones, Thomas the Impostor (1923) and Les Enfants Terribles (1929), when he was thirty-four and forty years of age respectively. He made his first film, The Blood of a Poet, in 1930 and a highly acclaimed play, The Infernal Machine, in 1934. His artiste friends in Paris included such luminaries as Pablo Picasso, Marcel Proust, Igor Stravinsky, and Sergei Diaghliev. Cocteau was a small, thin man and a chain-smoker.
As a filmmaker, he is best remembered for mainly five films: La Belle et la Bête (1946), Les Parents Terribles (1949), and the so-called “Orphic Trilogy”, comprised of the aforementioned The Blood of a Poet (1930), Orphée (1949), and Le Testament d'Orphée (1960). His film style was uniquely his own, emphasizing poetry, intellectualism, and fantasy. For La Belle et la Bête, he gave full reign to his passion for fantasy while somewhat curbing his tendency toward pseudo-intellectualism. Many viewers and critics consider La Belle et la Bête his finest film work.
When he was just ten, Cocteau lost his father to suicide, which is the most likely explanation for his lifelong obsession with death and the Orpheus myth. Cocteau was a homosexual and lived, at the time of La Belle et la Bête, with the film’s male lead, Jean Marais.
The Story: You may already know the story, at least in broad contours. It almost starts out like Cinderella. Once upon a time, a real Beauty (Josette Day) lived with her father (Marcel André), two older sisters, Felicity (Mila Parély) and Adelaide (Nane Germon), and a brother, Ludovic (Michel Auclair). Her father is the only decent one among them. The two sisters are vile and self-absorbed and treat Beauty like a servant. (They might be more appropriately named Duplicity and Needs-to-get-Laide). They spend most of their time whining and waiting for father to pass away so that they can inherit his wealth. The brother is less unpleasant but fritters his time away. Beauty has a suitor, Avenant (Jean Marais) – a friend of Ludovic – but she is devoted to her father and has no intention of marrying so long as he needs her care. Besides, Avenant is pretty much as useless as Ludovic.
The father is a merchant and, until recently, quite successful. The father must take a business trip to the coast, hoping to recover some of his fortune. Feeling optimistic, he asks each of the girls what present they would like. Adelaide and Felicity each try to outdo one another in the extravagance of their requests, settling on a monkey and a parrot respectively. The good-natured and selfless beauty asks only for a rose.
The old man soon finds himself returning home having had no luck at all, empty-handed and anticipating poverty. Passing through the forest, he chances upon a hidden castle and spotting a rose, thinks to satisfy the request of one daughter at least. No sooner has he picked a solitary rose than he is confronted by an imposing beast – half human and half animal. He is an excessively pilated fellow with vampire-like teeth. The Beast advises that father that the penalty for his transgression is death (a harsh penal code, here). Later, the Beast relents to the extent of allowing the man to return home if he promises to either return within three days or send one of his daughters instead. The father is sent off on a magical white steed who will know the way back to the castle.
Back home, the distraught father explains the dilemma. Obviously neither of the selfish sisters takes any interest in volunteering to be the substitute. The father refuses Beauty’s offer to take his place. He is old and tired anyway and prepared to meet death. Beauty’s devotion is such, however, that she takes it upon herself to clamber onto the white stallion and head off to presumptive doom at the Beast’s castle.
Entering the mysterious castle, Beauty quickly discovers that it is not your standard ranch. Doors soundlessly swing open as you approach. The hallway is lit by candelabras held by living arms and hands extending from the walls. Other disembodied hands point the way to the dining foyer. Partial faces protrude from the marble fireplace, puffing smoke. Beauty dutifully sits at the dining table and excitedly senses the Beast coming up behind her. She is, of course, repelled by his grotesque appearance – not to mention something of an intimidating manner. The Beast, on the other hand, is immediately captivated – not only by her obvious beauty but by her purity and innocence as well. He tells her, “Your are in no danger,” though I’m sure she’d have found that more convincing had he then called her a taxi.
The Beast informs Beauty of the revised contract. He will not kill her after all, but she must stay in the castle and never leave. He will not harm her or force his company on her except for dinner together each evening at 7:00 PM, at which time he will propose to her once each day. Beauty tells him up front that he’s wasting his time because she could never marry a beast! (Apparently she’s got this hang-up about bestiality.)
Nevertheless, one day passes after another, and Beauty gradually begins to pity the rug-like fellow. She begins to understand that inside he’s a pretty decent guy. She begins to crave his company, since there’s no one else around. (Cynics might call this the Stockholm syndrome in operation, but leave it alone! It’s a fairy tale!) It is a bit off-putting for Beauty when the Beast drops to all-fours to lap water from the lake or slobbers at the sight of a plump deer in the woods. She’s also a bit grossed out when he shows up at her room, one evening, with blood smeared all over his face after devouring some critter. But hey, each of you ladies out there had to go through pretty much the same thing when you civilized that husband of yours.
Nevertheless, the Beast is at least a sensitive kind of guy and he senses that Beauty is a bit depressed. Beauty is distraught that her poor old father might die while she is away and she won’t get to be at his side. The Beast agrees to a week’s pass, during which time Beauty can return home for a visit. He even throws in a magic glove that will transport her back and forth in the blink of an eye. If she fails to return, however, the Beast will die of heartbreak. Beauty, pure-of-heart as she is, doesn’t want any such thing on her conscience. She promises to return. As further evidence of his faith in her, the Beast entrusts Beauty with the golden key to his fortune.
Back home, Beauty’s presence provides great satisfaction to her father but she is also soon back to scrubbing floors, which most likely haven’t been washed since she left. Her sisters are more envious than ever, since Beauty is now not only more beautiful than they but also better clothed. The sisters begin to hatch a scheme, enlisting Ludovic and Avenant as well. They steal the golden key and send the young men off to the hidden castle to kill the Beast and steal his fortune. Meanwhile, they play on Beauty’s anxieties about her father’s condition and entice her to stay beyond her allotted week. Then she is further delayed searching for the missing key.
Back at the hidden castle, the robbery attempt is foiled when Avenant is fatally wounded by a poisonous arrow shot via some device protecting the booby-trapped fortune. Finally returning, Beauty encounters Beast close to death. She cradles him in her arms and the Beast’s sudden realization of the depth of Beauty’s love and devotion for him effects a remarkable transformation. The Beast and the dying Avenant switch bodies so that the kindly beast inherits Avenant’s handsome exterior while Avenant dies both poor and ugly. The new look will take some getting used to for both parties of the lucky couple, I suppose, but . . . . they’ll both live happily ever after.
Themes: One problem with fairy tales in this modern day and age is that, on close scrutiny, they don’t always turn out to be all that politically correct by modern standards. La Belle et la Bête has themes that still work today and some others that we’d just as soon not think about. The principal theme is still valid: beauty is only skin deep. External beauty does not correlate especially well with interior beauty. Some folks have both and some neither but some others have just one or the other. Many a person would have been well-advised to act on that message in picking a marriage partner, but a lot of us tend to give high priority to the sexy exterior. Then, of course, there’s the standard moral message that goodness is its own reward when Beauty triumphs and the evil sisters lose out. So far, so good!
What about the themes that no longer truly work. I won’t even mention the business of romance between people and animals (or half animals). That’s too kinky for serious discussion and not truly much of an issue with La Belle et la Bête. Viewers understand that the Beast is a metaphor for an ugly person with a good heart. A more serious concern is the implicit encouragement of undue persistence when hoping to woo another. The Beast effectively held Beauty hostage and was rewarded by winning her pity, then her understanding, and, finally, her love. Obviously, the vast majority of viewers will understand that they can’t kidnap their intended but we know that stalking and simple unwillingness to take “no” for an answer are also problems in society. The same issue is implicit in such modern films as Tie Me Up! Time Me Down!. Another message of dubious value relates to the kind of men that women want. The Beast can be seen as a lesson in making a wise choice – someone with good interior beauty (i.e., character, kindness, etc.) – but the Beast also epitomizes good old fashioned machismo to an extent: hairy, assertive, direct, passionate. The kind of guy that grabs his gal by the hair and hauls her off to his cave. From their very first meeting, we get the idea that Beauty is strangely excited by this guy’s beastliness and would jump his bones were it not for her paradoxical inhibitions about doing it with a beast.
Production Values: Obviously the real worth of this film lies largely in the magical way in which the story is told. Cocteau had reservations about taking on this project. The idea for the film actually originated with producer Andre Paulve, who felt that post-War France would be receptive to a fanciful fairy tale. Cocteau feared that the magnitude of the project was beyond his limited experience as a filmmaker, so he pulled together a superlative team to help ensure success. He hired Rene Clement, a more experienced director, as technical advisor. Then he added Christian Berard as designer, Henri Alekan as cinematographer, and George Auric for the music.
The result was high visual poetry. The sets are absolutely stunning. The Beast’s costume and make-up can still put to shame much of what’s done today. The script is jam-packed full of Freudian symbolism, giving the film its adult level appeal. Cocteau lets the fantasy carry the day, giving us a film of perfect cinematic magic.
Jean Marais was a strikingly handsome actor. It’s a testament to his performance skills that he actually comes off more appealing, overall, in his Beast get-up than as the wimpy Avenant or even the picture-perfect Prince! Marais’s other credits include notably Les Parents Terribles (1948), Orphée (1949), and, ironically, Stealing Beauty (1996). Josette Day exuded purity, saintliness, and the requisite range of facial responses to her ugly suitor's advances. She also appeared later in Les Parents Terribles.
Bottom-Line:La Belle et la Bête may very well be the most enchanting film of all times. Having said that, however, I probably need to add that it’s really a film intended to enchant adults, not children. I wouldn’t recommend even supervised viewing for a kid of less than about nine.
La Belle et la Bête was an early Criterion release (#6), but that version has been out-of-print for some time. Criterion selected this film for its very first re-release, issuing a splendid Special Edition. The extras are marginally different in the two versions, mostly favoring the new edition. There is a choice of two different audio commentaries (one more scholarly, the other more production related), an alternative sound track consisting of an opera written by Philip Glass specifically as a companion for this film, a documentary called “Screening at the Majestic” with cast and crew interviews, and a documentary on the restoration process. There is a fairly typical assortment of trailers and stills as well. The booklet includes a list of chapters, a translation of the original fable, and notes by Jean Cocteau himself. Both Criterion versions feature high quality restorations and transfer. La Belle et la Bête is in French with English subtitles and has a running time of 90 minutes.
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