La Belle et la Bete 1946

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La Belle et la Bete or Beauty and the beast in English is a classic and visual masterpiece byJean Cocteau in which he enacts the beautiful storyline we are all familiar with but does so whilst also appeasing the audience visually with the very well-chosen sets of the castle, the village etc."From the intricate and convincing make-up of the Beast and the surreal splendour of the bewitched castle to the unadorned simplicity of Beauty and the brutal gaudiness of her sisters, every frame is a feast for the eyes."(Damian Cannon 1997) Even the fact that the film is black and white works in its favour as it emphasises the dark and the light scenes where most of the light scenes are away from the castle and the dark ones are in the depths of it which in effect highlight the differences in both the beauty and the beasts worlds and depict how theycollide.

Fig 2The film may portray very scenic shotssuch as in the scene where the beauty and the beast are strolling outside the castle among the trees and flowers however in a pretty large percentage of the film an eeriness is conveyed through the darkly lit scenes, the sinister and creepy looking gargoyles and the musics participation. "Those familiar with the 1991 cartoon will recognize some of the elements of the story, but certainly not the tone. Cocteau uses haunting images and bold Freudian symbols to suggest that emotions are at a boil in the subconscious of his characters." (Roger Ebert 1999) The dark undertone could have been used to symbolise the misery and profound terror the beauty must have felt being held captive by the beast, because although we all know it ends well and merry, the audience loses sight on the fact that she is actually a prisoner to a large feline-resembling beast and has no knowledge of what will become of her - who's to say hewouldn'teat her.

The film despite being made in the mid 1940's has its way of getting around special effects, smart camera manipulation tricks that help it achieve effects we use today. a prime example of this can only be the final scene where the beauty and the now handsome prince take off to the sky. in such an early age of cinema one would think that use of this kind of effect would be avoided but Cocteau nailed theascension perfectly. "The sheer technical and artistic brilliance ofLa Belle et la bteoffers no hint to the extremely arduous conditions under which it was made. Scarcity of film and an unreliable electricity supply were just two of the challenges faced by the production team (to economise on electricity, the scene-shifters had to work by candlelight)." (James Travers 2010)On acknowledging the conditions that the film was produced under one can really appreciate the wonder that is La Belle et la Bete.

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Bibliography

Damian Cannon 1997 Available at: http://www.film.u-net.com/Movies/Reviews/Belle_Bete.html

Roger Ebert 1999 Available at http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-beauty-and-the-beast-1946

James Travers 2010 -http://frenchfilms.info/movie_reviews/FFI_La_Belle_et_la_bete_1946.html

Fig 1 Available at: http://www.m2jc.fr/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/la-belle-et-la-bete-1946-a02.jpg

Fig 2 Available at: http://1001movieman.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/188-la-belle-et-la-betebeauty-and-beast.html

Fig 3 Available at https://film110.pbworks.com/f/1255601372/belle_bete_6.jpg