La Belle et la Bete

Figure 1 - Image, Film Poster Monkey! I want a monkey!! ~ Flicie (fig.4) The 1946 French film Belle and the Beast is where we get the Disney variation of the story that we much love, Beauty and the Beast but looking into it more, IMDb state In France ,the fairy tale "La Belle et la Bte " is a classic by Madame Leprince de Beaumont(fig. 5) which shows use how fresh the plot ans moral concepts were. The story builds a collective of romance and comedy with a creeping darker tone that will add in the later twists. The film begins with an interesting choice of introductions. The credits and acknowledgements are written on a blackboard as if the story is being told in a classroom. The basis of which raises the question whether the entire film is just being told as one massive story. The film could happily pass as such due to it's very theatrical nature. The whole film feels staged but not in any way, shape or form is this a negative comment. The film is fresh and most enjoyable to watch and you would have to be incredibly dense not to have enjoyed it in one way or another despite it's rather fabulous ending.

The point of the film is the 'don't judge a book by it's cover' idea. This is portrayed with the animal-like nature of the beast and how though out the film, slowly but surely, you see him warming and acting more and more human. Now what defines someone as human? This story would argue that love and Figure 2: Film Still sacrifice is the one of the purest forms of true humanity. The film is immaculately made it would be nice to see as much effort in a lot of modernistic or

contemporary titles. The costume designs are breathtaking and designed down to each intricate detail. The next point that should be addressed is that of the quality of the film. The film has amazing clarity especially for it's age this was very important because it had to be able to clearly define the light and dark shades of the grey spectrum. The film does this very well almost embracing it's lack of colour in it's usage of black and white by using it to define the day to night cycles and also using it to display focal points and depth of field. Figure 3: Film Still The acting and music is very dramatic due to it's theatrical nature and there are clear plot devices and as such is very linear and will hold little to no surprises in content. However the content is indeed worth the watch and though some of the comedy is part of the primitive computer graphics you could happily argue that it all just adds to the experience. As the New York Times said Upon release, reception from the film was overwhelmingly positive. The New York Times critic Bosley Crowther highly enjoyed it, calling it "a sensuously fascinating film" and a "fanciful poem given full articulation on the screen...(fig 6). Well said is all that can be added.

Bibliography: Image: Figure 1 Web, Film Poster Art, La Belle et la Bete, 1946, France, http://thescope.ca/wpcontent/uploads/2010/10/La-Belle-et-la-Bete-Beauty-and-the-Beast_lg-540x720.jpg Figure 2 Web, Film Still, La Belle et la Bete, 1946, France, http://www.cinemovies.fr/images/data/photos/8238/la-belle-et-la-bete-1946-8238-1713133166.jpg Figure 3 Web, Film Still, La Belle et la Bete, 1946, France, http://www.ica.org.uk/thumbnail.php? id=5921&max=480 Quote: Figure 4 Web, Film Quote, La Belle et la Bete, 1946, France, http://www.aellea.com/script/qBEAST.htm Figure 5 Web, Quote, IMDb, La Belle et la Bete, 1946, http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0038348/ Figure 6 Film, Quote, Wikipedia, La Belle et la Bete, USA, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beauty_and_the_Beast_(1946_film)