I found perhaps the most odd scene of the movie to be the swap of identities between the beast and the theif. In de Beaumont's story, Belle is a little off put by the transformation of the beast, at first not identifying the newly transformed prince. However, in the Cocteau's film, Belle has to not only struggle with this but also with seeing a confessed loved one's face on the beast. Cocteau's version heightens the confusion of the original story's transformation and by doing so emphasizes Belle's unconditional love of the beast. However, along with this comes this unnerving baggage of a lover who becomes a mish-mash of identities, as if Belle handpicked the qualities she liked from each love and combined them into an uber-mate. Looking over this detail though, the transformation helps cement the magic of the story and in a way is a rebirth of the flawed thief romance into the pure one of the beast.

One difference between Cocteau's film "La Belle et la Bete" and Beaumont's version of "Beauty and the Beast" that I found interesting is the evil stepsister's role in the final outcome of the tory. In Beaumont's version, the sister's jealousy makes them shower Beauty with flattery and love to entice her to stay longer than her promise, letting the Beast die in grief or eat her up. In this version, the sister's are already married, but they are still jealous of their younger sister. However, in the movie, the sister's take a much more active role in the destruction of the Beast by persuading their brother and his friend to find and kill the monster, stealing Belle's gift in order to do so.

Nevertheless, it seems that the sister's punishments in each story do not correlate with the severity of their actions. When they simply entice Beauty to stay home longer, a fairly harmless crime in comparison to the movie, they end up as statues for an ambiguous amount of time - perhaps forever. Nevertheless, in "Belle et la Bete" when they steal and manipulate others to physically kill Beast, their punishment is carrying the train of their sister's dress. 

In my opinion, it seems like their punishments are reversed in terms of severity. Not really an important aspect of the two versions, but I thought it was an interesting note. 

Beaty and the Beast

Perhaps the greatest contrast between the two versions, the De Beamont one and the movie, is the opening depicition of the Beast's mansion. I found the way they depicted the mansion in the movie to be far different in the movie. When the father stumbles into the inside of the mansion, instead of it being described as magnificiant as De Beamont would have it, the movie sets up a far different image. The mansion is creepy and far more mysterious in nature. The greatness of the hall, is flooded in darkness in the movie which lends for a different feel.

Apart from setting up a different setting for the father to scamper about, it also has its implications of the hidden 'evil' laden in the walls. This notion leaves the viewer in suspence while at the same time making the viewer form biased judgements on the plave within. Thus, the movie has made a more active attempt at forming and attributing negative connotations to this area. Without chandaliers and a fireplace, the place would ahve been dark. This suggests a certain primativeness to the area, as fire serves as the only guiding light. It is no surprise that the father in the movie falls asleep right next to the warm fire as undoubltedly was done in barbaric periods of the past. Thus, the darker, more mysterious setting of the mansion forces a negative, primative gut response from the viewer, rather than a more passive presentation of the place, as depicted by De Beamont.

Of Beasts and Men

Cocteau's portrayal of magic was quite intriguing in comparison to de Beaumont's bland version of fantasy, and I found that through his particular use of magic, Cocteau was able to characterize the human nature much more so than did de Beaumont. The majority of insight that he provided to examine humanness occurred at his conclusion of the story. After thinking about the question posed in class about where the border of distinction between humans and beasts exists, I thought this movie did a much better job at examining what makes us human and how our actions define whether or not we deserve our human essence.

Cocteau achieves this insight by manipulating some of de Beaumont's character and plot portrayals so that by the end, the goodness of the beast and the beastliness of Avontue (I forgot his name, but Belle's other "human" suiter) earn each character their just reward. Interestingly, Cocteau adds this other suiter to the storyline to contrast the nature of the beast. de Beaumont's version makes very vague references to prior suiters for Belle, and none of them hold any grudges against Belle- at least de Beaumont makes no mention of it- that would drive them to go hunt down the beast to kill him and take all his wealth. In reference to the Beast's wealth, Cocteau creates this "sacred domain" where the Beast's true wealth is stored where both the Beast and Belle are forbidden to enter. Inside is where the magical statue of Diana keeps guard of the Beast's treasure and protect's it from any intruders. This statue is also very interesting because it incorporates two of de Beaumont's story elements into one: the good fairy and turning the older sisters into statues for their cruelty. Instead of the statue symbolizing the punishment for ill will and greed, the statue is the dictator of punishments for the same characteristics and acts as the fairy to protect the happiness and virtue of the deserving characters.

The combination of these changes to the de Beaumont version acts in synchrony to show that to be human requires that a person be able not only to recognize his or her own faults, but also be able to convey the true worth of his character. Beast is fully aware of his shortcomings, and he patiently accepts his "beastliness" until some woman is able to recognize the true merit of his character. The human suiter, on the other hand, is lazy, gambles all day, and is way too confident in his good looks to realize that Belle needs more than just a handsome face. Not only that, but he also doesn't stop and consider what he is doing when he attempts to steal the beast's treasure. Because of the Beast's and the suitor's character (flaws), each character earns their true appearance.

Assignment: 10 March 2009

Since many of you still need to watch the Cocteau film, posts will be due at midnight on Wednesday instead of Tuesday.

Pick one scene or element from Cocteau's "La Belle et La Bête" and compare it or contrast it with de Beaumont's version. You might pick something that interests you, that seems odd, or something that you missed in one version or the other, for example.