Movie Review: La Belle et la Bête 1946

Anyone who knows me can tell you that I love this story in all its iterations. Luckily for me, there are a lot of iterations. The “artistic” version of Beauty and the Beast is Jean Cocteau’s “La Belle et la Bête”, a black-and-white French film that follows Madame Leprince de Beaumont’s original story more closely than any other adaptation I’ve seen. Cocteau focuses on unique aspects of this tale, which I’m going to unpack here. I’m not going to bother avoiding spoilers since we all know the story, but to get the most out of this review, consider watching the film first.

First of all, the cinematography is gorgeous. The lack of color, the sets and the ethereal score, all create a surreal effect. Much of the film is delightfully eerie, especially the scene where Belle’s father enters the Beast’s castle. I also enjoyed hearing the tale brought to life in French, its (palpably romantic) original language.

One of the major themes of the film is, as always, appearances vs. reality. Much importance is attached to seeing beyond the surface. The film begins with an appeal to suspend our disbelief and listen to the story the way a child would; credulously, without cynical critique. In this adaptation, the “original sin” which causes the curse is the prince’s parents’ refusal to believe in magic. They could not trust what they didn’t see, causing their son’s downfall at the hands of unseen powers. Later, another character will announce that he doesn’t believe in magic, and meet a similar fate. Nothing is as it seems: the beast is really a prince, the downtrodden sister is the only one with true beauty, Belle’s decision not to return to the castle is ultimately the wrong one although it appears to be the right one, Avenant’s quest to kill the Beast is not really as altruistic as it may seem to him. This shifting ambiguity is woven throughout the story, making the point that it takes intention and receptivity to see into the heart of things. The idea that there is always more to the world than meets the eye, that we must open our souls to magic to really know the truth, further adds to the dreamlike quality of the film.

Another subject the film raises is the struggle to overcome animal nature and exchange it for a human nature. A central thesis of “La Belle et la Bête” is that Love attunes us to higher things and divorces us from baser impulses- or at least it should. As a character remarks, “Love can turn a man into a beast.” Love has the power to reform, but also to degenerate. This is driven home through a hunting motif. One of the first shots is of Avenant, the Beast’s rival and foil, shooting an arrow through an open window where Belle and her sisters are gathered. Later, when Belle’s father is wandering the Beast’s rose garden, he spots a felled deer lying in front of the Pavillon de Diane (“Diane” being the Roman goddess of the hunt, who was considered to be the special protector of virgins). When Belle sees the Beast for the first time, she faints in the same spot as the deer. Instead of devouring her, the Beast carries her in his arms to her room. Later, after Belle asks the Beast to be friends only, he spots another deer, but resists the impulse to catch and kill it. Instead, he turns to Belle and calmly takes her hand. He does not treat her as prey, as a true beast would have done. It’s also worth noting that Beast repeatedly refuses to look into Belle’s eyes until the very end; after he has released her out of love and self-mastery, his reward is the clear sight of his beloved. Belle herself has complete self-possession from the very beginning, unlike the Beast, Avenant, or her siblings. She even rejects a suitor she has feelings for so that she can be of use to her family. She is fully human and in control of herself, instead of being controlled by her emotions like a beast, and is therefore the Beauty of the story.

As you can see, there’s a lot of food for thought packed into this short little film. It’s truly a fairy tale, in every sense of the word. As of this writing, you can rent “La Belle et la Bête” with English subtitles on Amazon Prime. If you enjoy it, be sure to check out Philip Glass’s opera by the same name. It is composed to accompany the film when played simultaneously.