This review will cover the impact
of the set design to contemporary films and audiences. As the director, Jean
Cocteau uses the genre of the film as a fantasy fairy tale to influence his set
design. The themes of the film that are left in the symbolisation as characters
visit the Beast’s castle become prominent as this is where the film becomes
focused on this element. It is set in the 16th century, however the
castle designs are far more abstract and juxtaposing to the more realistic
depictions of forest are villages with a mystical tone. It was a concept by
Christian Bérard who was a fashion illustrator for Coco Chanel and Nina Ricci
and was brought in to be the films’ production designer. Minimalistic darkness interspersed
with arms holding candle sticks give the film a memorable aestheticism without
having to have a large budget or expensively designed set. In this comparison
of La Belle et la Bête to the 1991
animated adaptation Beauty and the Beast
by the Disney production company, Eric D. Snider of the film blog website
Film.com, who has said that “Cocteau was
part of the avant-garde movement that also loosely included the Dadaists and
Surrealists,” and talking over what it influenced for design in the Disney
adaption and for other cinema, he went on “They
[Disney] took Cocteau’s idea of talking
doors and food that magically serves itself a step further, giving the sentient
inanimate objects actual voices and personalities. In Cocteau’s version, the
hallways are lined with candles held by human arms coming out of the walls;
rather eerily, details like that are never explained… you can also see Cocteau’s whimsical, imaginative visual style
reflected in the films of Tim Burton, Michel Gondry, and Terry Gilliam”. (Snider,
2011)
As a poet and a painter himself,
a thought about Cocteau by audiences and reviewers is that in his direction, he
wanted to bring greater impact of moods and a feeling of dissatisfaction after
the end of World War 2, which brought a difficultly to filming as well. In film
critic Roger Ebert’s Review of the film on his website, he writes “Cocteau, a poet and surrealist, was not
making a "children's film" but was adapting a classic French tale
that he felt had a special message after the suffering of World War II: Anyone
who has an unhappy childhood may grow up to be a Beast.” (Ebert, 1999) The
film lingers on feelings of dissatisfaction and even after a happy conclusion
there is still lingering discontentment. At the end of the film, the Beast is
transformed back into the archetypal ‘Prince Charming’ character, and Belle
appears to be left slightly dissatisfied by this, as an ordinary fairy tale
ending. As Michelle Aldredge of Gwarlingo, an online journal or creative media
says, “Cocteau implores his audience to
suspend disbelief—to watch the film as a child would. Just as the opening
credits on the chalkboard are erased, and the shot of the erasable clapperboard
stopped, the filmmaker asks us to erase our preconceptions and expectations.”
(Aldredge, 2012)
The film is notable for using
camera tricks and stylistic choices prevalent in cinema before computer effects
were used in modern filmmaking. Aldredge also describes the effects that
Cocteau and the film’s cinematographer Henri Alekan used, including “reverse and slow-motion shots, mirrors, and
other camera tricks to striking effect. Cocteau’s decision to keep the camera still
was against the prevailing fashion of the time. According to Cocteau’s diary,
this was a source of some friction with Alekan.” (Aldredge, 2012) The
surreal imagery of the film influenced the 1991 animated adaption for the anthropomorphic
servants of the enchanted castle and the film is still hailed for its heavy
poetic style, notably by Ebert himself, who described it as “one of the most magical of all films”,
according Snider’s review.
Bibliography
Sources
Snider, E.D.
2011
What’s the Big
Deal?: Beauty and the Beast (1946)
Ebert, R.
1999
Beauty and the
Beast Review
Aldredge, M.
2012
Jean Cocteau’s Beauty
and the Beast: More Than Meets the Eye
Images
Film Poster
La Belle et la Bête
http://vintagemoviepostersforum.com/discussion/40/la-belle-et-la-bete-1946 [Accessed on 07/11/15]
Fig 1
La Belle et la Bête
film still
https://scribehardonfilm.wordpress.com/2012/05/
[Accessed on 07/11/15]
Fig 2
La Belle et la Bête
film still
www.cineplex.com
[Accessed on 07/11/15]
Fig 3
La Belle et la Bête
film still
www.literature.hss.ed.ac.uk
[Accessed on 07/11/15]
Another nicely written review Zoe :)
ReplyDeleteJust have another quick look at the referencing guide to make sure that your bibliography and image lists are formatted correctly... http://community.ucreative.ac.uk/Harvard-Referencing