BEAUTY AND THE BEAST (1946)
Culture Characteristics:
1. French dualism
2. French artistic approach to life
3. Language as art
4. Existentialism
5. Surreal and symbolic art
6. Non-commercial popular art
7. Fancy movie costuming, impressionistic music
Directed/written by Jean Cocteau (1889-1963), this movie is an outstanding example of language as art and movies as
emotional and intellectual works of art rather than purely commercial products. It showcases the beauty of the French
(Latin) language and sophisticated manners, Cocteau was the artistic designer of every phase of his movie, including the
surreal scenery, costuming, dialogue, casting, and even painting the sets. He crafted the movie to feel like a dream.
How This Movie Symbolizes Dualistic French Culture
• La Bete is dualistic: half human/half beast
• La Belle is also dualistic: half way in love with La Bete/half horrified by him
• La Bete is actually prince Avenon (2 opposite people)
• La Belle is good, her 2 sisters are bad
• Aloneness and togetherness
• Acceptance vs. rejection
• Sympathy vs. impatience
• Regality vs. humiliation
• Masculine-feminine
• External physical appearance vs. internal character and personality
• Light and dark contrasts (chiaroscuro)
Surreal Images to Watch For
• Living candelabras
• Mirrors
• Deer
Multiple Layers of Meaning
• Why did Belle let Bete drink from her hand?
• Why the regal pose walking?
• What did Bete apologize profusely to Belle outside near the forest?
• How did Belle unintentionally hurt Bete after she stroked his head?
• Why was Bete so crushed after Belle told him the name of her fiancée?
• In the final scene shown, why was Belle repulsed by Bete? Why was he shrouded in smoke?
• Why wasn’t there any sex, nudity, or violence?
A prince has been turned into a beast on the outside, a man on the inside. To break the spell, he must find a woman who
is willing to marry him. He hopes to find a woman who won’t “judge a book by its cover.” Beauty's father innocently “steals”
a rose (symbol of belle) from Beast’s enchanted castle and will die unless one of his three daughters comes to live there.
Beauty volunteers to go to the castle in order to save her father. La Bete struggles against his bestial instincts, such as
hunting deer for food, not wanting to repulse La Belle. They both can only be patient with one another, hoping that time
will be on their side. Every evening at 7:00, beast asked Beauty if she will be his wife. This scene begins with Beauty
looking for Beast outside the castle after a falling out between them.