Beauty is Underneath

Beauty and the Beast

This week I had a chance to watch an old (1946 old…), black and white, French version of beauty and the beast. I was amazed to say the least. And it goes along with the fairy tale theme we had =D

In the beginning, the beast asks belle if she finds him ugly, and while she says yes, but surly he is a kind person, he replies with he is slow witted and stupid. He believes his ugliness to be decided by his outside, and while he does have beast-like tendencies (hey, Bambie had to die…he was asking for it), he does have a kind heart inside. On the other hand, the Gaston like character (Avenant is his name, also played by Jean Marais, who played the beast/prince) looks good, but is not the best of character to start, and gets worse as the film goes on. At the end of the film, while breaking into the beast’s treasure house, Avenant turns into the beast, and the beast becomes a prince who looks suspiciously like Avenant. Not only was the effect very well done, I saw this as what was on the inside coming out for all to see, we cannot hide our true selves forever.

The atmosphere of the enchanted castle was also well done, very creepy. The statues and paintings eyes literally followed belle as she passed by.  As the film went on, the facial expressions slightly softened, and the random arms sticking out of the walls and table showed up less.

Random thought of the blog: The main actor (Jean Marais) and the director (Jean Cocteau) were in a relationship that started way before this film was made…hmm, wonder why Marris was in so many of Cocteau’s films...?

The other random thought of the blog: The ending was, in my opinion, while a well done effect, super cheesy. Like, floating through the clouds in each other’s arms to the princes (other, and hopefully less creepy) magical castle cheesy…