Beauty and the Beast: An Illusion of Truth
Kristel Rose Tretter
“Beauty and the Beast” is a classic fairy tale that has been retold through various media such as oral storytelling, written short story, opera, film and musical theatre. With each rendition the story is given a new perspective and a focus on different elements for the reader/audience to consider. In 1946 Jean Cocteau adapted Madame Leprince de Beaumont’s written short story of “Beauty and the Beast” for the film, Beauty and the Beast, starring Jean Marais and Josette Day. Each of these versions offers their own unique approach to the tale and have become classics in their own right. De Beaumont’s story was written so as to have it read and enjoyed by adults and children, whereas Cocteau’s film is aimed primarily at adults due to the darker and more ambivalent nature the film brings to the tale. Although both versions require the reader/viewer to see beyond the surface, the written story has a clear writing style and provides simplicity in it’s depiction of the tale, whereas, in the film the viewer cannot trust appearances but must rely on her senses to truly “see”. The film has more subtext and innuendo than the written version requiring additional effort on behalf of the viewer and therefore obscures the viewer’s “vision”. This veiled perspective leaves most of the ethical responsibility of the tale to the viewer’s interpretation of the nuances and implications suggested in the film.
One of the central items in the story affecting the characters’ ability to see or not see, and therefore the reader/viewer’s ability, is the life-like mirror. In de Beaumont’s story there is only one mention of the mirror that allows Beauty to see her father. However, in the film the mirror is used often and for many purposes. The mirror allows Beauty to see her father falling ill, however this could also be a reflection of Beauty’s subconscious and how ill she feels due to homesickness. The Beast uses the mirror to find Beauty when he feels the need, which shows a level of distrust on his part. When Beauty returns home to visit her family, the mirror is brought to her, via Magnificent. Falling into the hands of Beauty’s wicked sisters, the mirror reflects their inner selves by showing an old woman and a monkey when they look into it. When Beauty looks into it, her own reflection appears followed by the Beast dying and then returns to her own reflection. This allows Beauty to see the Beast, however due the multi-functionality the mirror has presented in previous reflections throughout the film, the viewer’s perception concerning the purpose of each reflection, by this point, is skewed and the image of the Beast can then be interpreted as a reflection of Beauty’s beastliness toward the Beast for not keeping her promise. The mirror is personified by having the ability to alter what is shown through its glass. This personification further emphasises a sense of mistrust, as the viewer cannot trust what perspective the mirror chooses to reflect. In the end the mirror breaks when Beauty cannot find the key, taken by Ludovic and Avenant. The Beast entrusted the key to her reflecting how trust and suspicion can easily be mislaid.
Another element, which will, more literally, effect how the viewer “sees,” is the use of lighting within the film. Although this is an element specific to the film medium, it lends a contradiction to the style in which de Beaumont wrote her story. The written story is clear with a relatively direct style; there is little sense of vague or indistinguishable elements to the story. The film, on the other hand, is filled with contrasts between lightness and darkness, which tells the viewer when they are seeing everything and when they are not. The moments of darkness are what allow the viewer to infer a subtext and to believe the there may be an alternate perspective than what is overtly given. The darkness and shadows, found predominately in the castle, offer a sense of secrecy as though something is being hidden and “begin to behave as if they too were characters with parts to play” (Hoggard 131). The unknown force felt by these shadows cause one to question the available information presented and emotionally empathise with the discomfort Beauty must feel with so much darkness surrounding her. These lighting techniques were inspired by art, specifically Flemish paintings, that offer unique lighting and character perspectives (Alekan), which makes the film feel as though its drawing the audience into a painting and therefore disassociates the viewer from reality. The scenes in which Beauty is with her family are much brighter disguising nothing. The shot sequences at Beauty’s home also move at a quicker tempo and allow for a happier disposition. In contrast to the castle and its grounds, at Beauty’s cottage there is a sense of comfort and openness and she then feels comfortable disclosing all the details of her time away. The light appears to bring a sense of release and relief of the tension felt at the castle. However, once she remembers how vindictive her sisters are and how suffocating Avenant can be, Beauty realises she misses the Beast and how much better her life was at the castle. It is at this point that one realises that the use of light and dark in the film has been misleading the audience and deceiving the true value of each situation causing one to further distrust one’s own perceptions of the previous events in the film.
Although Cocteau borrowed the plot of de Beaumont’s story to make his film, he did make some changes to the narrative. Many of these changes bring a new level of awareness and/or blindness, as the case may be, to the atmosphere and alter the viewer’s insight toward the tale’s dimensional qualities. In de Beaumont’s story Beauty dreams of a lady who, at the end of the story, is discovered to be a powerful fairy. This fairy is a source of information for Beauty allowing the reader to understand, on a very basic level, reason behind the events taking place. Cocteau chose not to have a fairy and therefore leaves out the information made clear in the written story forcing the viewer to create her own supplemental information with her imagination. As a substitute for the fairy, Diana who serves but one function in the film, she kills Avenant when he enters the pavilion, further dramatises the ambiguous tone of the film. Avenant is also an addition Cocteau made to the narrative. He, with his handsome face, reflects everything the Beast is at heart and the Beast, with his beastly looks, reflects the character of Avenant’s heart. Such a correlation is then emphasised with both roles performed by Marais. The parallelism made with this connection is another trick to the eye of the viewer. When Diana casts the arrow into Avenant and he turns into a beast and dies, the Beast is simultaneously resurrected as Prince Ardent, who looks just like Avenant. One would wonder whether this image was simply Avenant resurrected as Prince Ardent causing additional questions about the apparition, yet full well knowing that it is not Avenant due to the attitude, clothing, hair and make-up. It is this uncertainty and manipulation of appearances that blind the viewer and leaves an unresolved existential element requiring from the viewer a personal supposition.
Closer to the beginning of the film, after discovering her father’s peril, Beauty leaves for the castle without telling anyone. Unlike the written story where her father accompanies her, this act is another form of deception and imposes doubt that saving her father is her only motive; it is possible she simply wanted to escape from the malevolence inherent in the character of her sisters and Avenant. When staying in the castle, Beauty gradually feels more comfortable with her surroundings and explores the castle and its grounds. As this happens, she begins to see things she was not intended to see such as seeing the Beast in a trance with his hands and body smoking after a kill, representing more of his true nature. Beauty also sees the Beast drinking water from a pond as an animal would. These discoveries of hers also reflect a depth and multi-dimensionality to the characters of the tale and shows the audience that there is more to these characters than what is presented on the surface. As stated by Caroline Sheaffer-Jones,
It is important to recognise that the “real” identities of the characters in the film are not absolutely fixed, as they may appear to be, but are instead constantly in flux. There is a spectrum along which the characters shift in their relationship to beauty and beastliness sometimes right up until the point of death, and indeed even beyond. It is this “loss” of identity or rather ongoing change in identity which is pertinent (365-366).
Therefore even though the Beast is good at heart, there are still some elements of beastliness to him; one then realises that Avenant, who may appear to be reckless and domineering, also has some good nature in his character, which is reflected in small gestures he makes such as helping Felicity down when they discover Beauty has come home.
The viewer’s sense of reality and perspective within the tale is also obscured by elements that indicate external, unseen characters. One of these characters is the castle itself, which Cocteau has personified. The animated faces of the caryatids on the fireplace and the statues in the corridors watch and react to the events happening before them. There are also helpful arms that sense what the person at hand wants as it pours wine and lights candelabras as is needed. The castle sees everything going on and one would have reservations about what it knows that is not being divulged. “There is a kind of surrealistic dismemberment in the faces and arms emerging from pedestals and walls, emanating from nothingness” (Pauly 89). There are also camera shots, along with the shadows and darkness mentioned above, that imply that there is another unseen character or spirit lurking or spying on Beauty. When The Merchant (Beauty’s father) comes home after his trip and tells his story, Felicity becomes angry at Beauty. This reaction is shot from behind Avenant, with his hand on his hip, as though someone were sitting there watching quietly. When Beauty sneaks out in order to go to the castle she pauses by a wall and looks to make sure no one is following. The camera angle looks down upon her from above, again, as though someone were hiding and watching. The next unusual shot takes place in the hallway of the castle just after Beauty has arrived and she is exploring the castle; she is walking, although appears to be floating, down the corridor approaching the camera which zooms in so close it turns to blackness and the next shot is from the other direction zooming out. This sequence gives the audience the allusion that something, such as a spirit, passed right through Beauty’s body. Finally she tries to runaway from the castle after having been frightened. When she reaches the bottom of the outdoor staircase she sees the Beast for the first time and faints. As the Beast picks her up and takes her inside the camera is watching from the other side of a window. These shots stand out from the rest of the cinematography and make one question who or what is watching, instilling a defensive instinct in the viewer and cause her to question the impartiality and objectivity of the camera.
As a result from these various cinematic elements Cocteau creates in his rendition of Beauty and the Beast, a film for the adult who is willing to question reality and allow her senses to help her see what is really going on and not to lay her trust only in that which is visually presented. The unique use of camera angles and shots, lighting and narrative changes were all successfully employed in Cocteau’s film to create a visual illusion causing the audience to feel as though they are part of a painting. Cocteau leaves the moral deductions, a fundamental part of de Beaumont’s fairy tale, to the conclusion of each individual viewer and gives the audience the ability to use their imagination throughout the film. Cocteau chose not to use visual effects that were created in a lab to distinguish the real and surreal worlds, but “preferred effects that looked like conjuring tricks” (“Screening”) borrowing the film’s illusionary character from the characteristics of a great magic show, which is exactly, in a unique manner, what the film is.
©Copyright 2006, Kristel Rose Tretter
Works Cited
Alekan, Henri. “Interview with Cinematographer Henri Alekan.” Beauty and the Beast. Special Feature, DVD. The Criterion Collection, 2003.
Beauty and the Beast. Dir. Jean Cocteau. Based on story by Mme Leprince de Beaumont. Perf. Jean Marais, Josette Day. 1946. DVD. The Criterion Collection, 2003.
De Beaumont, Mme Leprince. “Beauty and the Beast.” Beauty and the Beast: Diary of a Film. Trans. Ronald Duncan. New York: Dover Publications, 1972. 131-142.
Hoggard, Lynn. “Writing with the Ink of Light: Jean Cocteau’s Beauty and the Beast.” Film and Literature: A Comparative Approach to Adaptation. Ed. Wendell Aycock and Michael Schoenecke. Lubbock, TX: Texas Tech, 1988. 123-134.
Pauly, Rebecca M. “Beauty and the Beast: From Fable to Film.” Literature/Film Quarterly 17.2 (1989): 84-90.
“Screening at the Majestic.” 1995. Beauty and the Beast. Special Feature, DVD. The Criterion Collection, 2003.
Sheaffer-Jones, Caroline. “Fixing the Gaze: Jean Cocteau’s La Belle et la Bete.” The Romanic Review 93.3 (2002): 361-374.
