La Belle et La Bte is a French film made in 1946 which follows the recognisable story of the beauty and the

Beast that has been recreated many times since. Originally the fairy tale was written by Madame LePrince de
Beaumont. The story begins with a girl Belle who lives in a quaint French town. When her Father gets
lost in the forest and stumbles upon the Beasts castle, he is captured and is told he has to die, or one of his
daughters may replace him. Belle sneaks away to the castle in order to save her father and is held there by
the Beast. The Beast asks her to marry him multiple times but every time she says no, as she has a love
interest at home. Over the course of her captivity the Beast starts to soften, and Belle starts to fall in love
with him. When her Father is on his death bed, she is allowed to go to him if she promises to return. Her
father makes a full recovery and she returns to the beast using the magical transportation glove that he gave
her. Although, the Beast is now on his death bed, but he is also saved when he turns back into a prince, and
her previous love interest then turns into the beast instead. The film ends as Belle and the Prince fly off
together to their happily ever after.

Fig 1: La Belle et la Bte movie poster

The director of La Belle et La Bte- Jean Cocteau, made the film purposefully quite poetic as he did not
consider himself primarily a filmmaker but a poet (Ebert 1999). The film as poetic qualities to it from how it
looks to the dialogue between the characters. The film is presented as being set in quite an unrealistic place,
although their lives seem quite real somehow. Beauty and the beast was a poetic film made by an artist
(Ebert, 1999) sums up the feel of the film, as the film was not made for entertainment and an action-packed
storyline but rather it was made to look a certain way and have certain qualities about it that make it so
poetic.

One reason as to why the film was presented predominantly as a poetic work of art was because it is a work
which continues the vein of fantasy which had characterised [Jean Cocteaus] scriptwriting during the
wartime years. (Armes, unknown) It is believed that one of the reasons that the film is poetic is because it
needed to have a completely fantastical feel to it as in the post war years people needed to be able to escape
from reality. They didnt want to be reminded about what had happened, they wanted to be taken out of the
awful situation.
La Belle et La Bte was a film that dared to be nave, asking its audience to revert to childhood, the better to
accept its practical magic. It is one of Cocteaus few films that it is wider to take at face value, rather than
explore at the level of later, perhaps more sophisticated (and certainly more pretentious) works). (Malcolm,
1999) This is another point to back up the fact that the film was just meant to be the sort of film that you
watched in order to escape from reality without having to explore and think too deeply about the meaning of
the film. This meant that you were able to revert to childhood when watching the film, which gave people a
break from the harsh reality of the post war world.

Fig 2: Poetic atmosphere Fig 3: fantastical qualities- characters flying

Illustration List

Figure 1 La Belle et la Bte movie poster (1946) [poster] At: http://manapop.com/wp-

content/uploads/2015/04/bellaylabestia4616.jpg (Accessed on 3/11/17)

Figure 2 Scene with Belle and the Beast (1946) [film still] At:
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/ef/97/b7/ef97b7e90bc6cfa9f54d126db67ee4dd.jpg (Accessed on 3/11/17)

Figure 3 End scene as Belle and the prince fly into the air (1946) [film still] At:
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/42/03/34/420334443acc1a44027b3c495c411f00.jpg (Accessed on 3/11/17)

Bibliography

Armes, R (unknown) La Belle et La Bte Film (Movie) Plot and Review In: Film Reference [online] At:
http://www.filmreference.com/Films-Aw-Be/La-Belle-et-la-B-te.html (Accessed on 3/11/17)

Ebert, R (1999) Great Movie Beauty and the Beast In: Roger Ebert [online] At:
https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-beauty-and-the-beast-1946 (Accessed on 3/11/17)

Malcolm, D (1999) Jean Cocteau: La Belle et La Bte In: The Guardian [online] At:
https://www.theguardian.com/film/1999/jul/01/1 (Accessed on 3/11/17)