Beauty and the Beast (
La Belle et la Bête) - Second Jean Cocteau film I've watched after
Orpheus. He does a surprisingly effective job of interpreting the fantastical aspects of the 1757 fairy tale. Surprising because this was shortly after WWII ended (1946) and there were myriad obstacles to overcome including a scarcity of film stock and frequent power outages. Fabric was in such short supply that when the film crew arrived at the film set each morning they'd often find out that someone had stolen the set's sheets and curtains. But Cocteau not only persevered he also improvised to great effect the Beast's enchanted castle with it's disembodied candelabra and living statuary and carvings.
Belle (Josette Day) lives with her father (Marcel André), her two avaricious sisters, Félicie (Mila Parély) and Adélaïde (Nane Germon) and her well meaning but still-a-lunkhead brother Ludovic (Michel Auclair). Ludovic's wastrel friend Avenant (Jean Marais) hangs around and tries to woo Belle to no great effect. The family fortune has disappeared along with her father's ships, which were lost at sea. One day he receives news that one of his ships has been found and has arrived at the port but unbeknowst to him his son Ludovic has signed a contract with a usurer that allows the moneylender to sue his father for damages if he cannot repay the loan. His father travels to the port but additional creditors have already seized his goods. Before he left he had asked his daughters what he could bring them when he returned and Belle had asked for a single rose.
On the way home the father gets lost in the dark woods but stumbles on the Beast's enchanted castle. The gates and doors open of their own accord and the floating candelabras and fully laden dining table welcome the tired man but the host is nowhere to be found. Upon waking in the morning he flees the castle but, remembering his promise to Belle, he stops to pluck a single rose. The Beast (also played by Jean Marais) appears out of nowhere and informs him that, even though he was welcome to anything in his home, the only things he was forbidden to touch were his roses. And that the penalty for this transgression was death. He tells the man he can go if one of his daughters takes his place, then offers him his white horse Magnificent, telling him to use a special phrase and the horse will take him wherever he wants to go.
After arriving home and relating the fantastical tale Rose blames herself and volunteers to take his place. He won't hear of it so she sneaks away in the middle of the night on Magnificent. Thus begins the the peculiar but effective courtship between the hirsute suitor (hirsuitor?) and the unassuming young woman. And that's how hundreds (if not thousands) of erotic fan fictions came to be. But with two greedy and conniving sisters, a dimbulb brother and a jilted suitor still at home there is of course remaining treachery afoot and it's handled with aplomb by Cocteau and cast. I did however find the recognizable ending strangely unsatisfying and borderline farcical which, as it turns out, was part of Cocteau's plan all along. So for once my intrinsic cynicism was in line with a directors intent.
90/100