I was going to write a whole post about how the film is different from the original story because of the fact that Cocteau has turned it into an opera, and how much of it sounds like Phillip Glass. However, after researching the movie, I see that I have accidentally watched a re-dubbed operatic version actually composed by Phillip Glass, so I'm going to talk about it anyway!
Since this is the only version I saw, I want to talk about what making this film an opera did to the story. Glass' use of repetition and building chord structures in all of his compositions creates an other worldly feel that allows the listener to get lost in the music. Pairing his style with a fairy tale has created an interesting result because along with the surrealist style that Cocteau employs, the film really creates a fairy tale world unlike anything on the page in Beaumont's version is able to do. Not only does the music create that fairy tale feel, but it also dramatizes the story intensely. Hearing the characters sing passionately to each other instead of simply speaking takes the emotions involved in the story to new heights. We feel for the characters as they sing with more passion and emotion. Similarly, since there is no diegetic sound in this version of the film, we take all of our cures from the music itself. As the music crescendos, we are swept away with the characters into whatever is happening. In a way, this operatic fairy tale does the best job out of any media we have been exposed to so far of truely immersing us into the world in which the story takes place, and making us truely care about the outcome of its characters.

Addition of Avenant

One thing that stood out to me the most in Cocteau’s “La Belle et La Bête” is the character of Avenant is added. He is not in De Beaumont’s version of “Beauty and the Beast.” In De Beaumont’s version, Beauty has two sisters and three brothers, and then in the film she has two sisters, one brother, and Avenant, her brother’s friend. Avenant is like Gaston in Disney’s film; he is the arrogant, handsome man who wants to marry Beauty.

It is interesting how when Beauty tells the Beast that Avenant had proposed to her the Beast gets upset and runs off. I thought he went to kill Avenant because he comes back to the castle covered in blood, but then we see Avenant playing chess a few moments later. The Beast acted as if he recognized the name, but that whole scene doesn’t seem to be important to the story as it progresses since Avenant and the Beast never interact.

Also, the brother and Avenant are lazy and act more like the two sisters in the film than the brothers do in the written tale. Beauty’s brother and Avenant play major roles in the decisions made to get Beauty to stay so that they can steal the Beast’s treasures. However, in the written version, the three brothers do not try to keep Beauty away from the Beast. Other than these changes I felt that the film stays fairly true to De Beaumont’s version. Of course, Magnificent, the Beast’s horse, was added, as well as the pavilion full of treasures and a few other changes.

Madam Beaumont’s version of ‘Beauty and the Beast’ vs. Cocteau's "La Belle et la Bête"

I agree with Moriah that that was the most striking change from the two versions of Madam Beaumont’s version of ‘Beauty and the Beast’ and Cocteau's "La Belle et la Bête". However, there were several other changes in the movie than the text version of the fairytale- such as the Beast giving Belle the key to his secret pavilion where all of his most sacred treasures laid. In giving her that key it was symbolizing his complete trust in Belle that she will keep her promise and return to the castle after a week of being with her father. Thus there was another change in which her siblings and her brother’s friend tries to get Belle to reveal the secret of getting to the Beast’s castle and getting the key from her. In the movie, the Beast sends a horse to take Belle back to the castle, but the brother and his friend gets on the horse instead, and the sisters leave the mirror for Belle. She is then able to see that the Beast is really sad and thus she decides to return to him. Also, in the movie, her sisters manage to steal the key from Belle, which causes Belle to go back and forth between her house and the castle in trying to find the key, before just running to find the Beast. Lastly, her brother and Avenant climb to the top of the pavilion and break the glass. Avenant tries to lower himself down into the pavilion but is shot by a cupid statue and then just as he turns into a beast, the Beast himself transform into a handsome young prince that sweeps Belle off her feet and carry her away. Also, in the movie, there were most aspects of the Beast showing human qualities, like that part that Ellie already mentioned with him going into her room and hugging her blanket- taking in her smells and her possession as if that was really her. He longed for her and animals don’t usually do that.

la bête avenant

One of the most striking changes from the de Beaumont version of 'Beauty and the Beast' to Cocteau's "La Belle et la Bête" is the transformation of the Beast into a gussied up version of Avenant. After some extensive wikipedia-ing and babelfishing research, I have found a couple of interesting things, firstly, the actor who plays Avenant also plays the Beast, and he was also the 'lifetime companion' of Cocteau. Take this as you will, but it makes a lot of sense to give the most important parts to such an important figure in your life. But also, the name Avenant in itself is French for "pleasant or good looking." Is it not funny that the beast turns into Handsome for his Beauty? At first I thought this transformation was a bit ridiculous. But the more I think of it, the more I believe that it was a genius decision.
The beast became over time, more and more human. He tried to suppress his need to hunt and kill. He treated Beauty well, and pined for her when she left. As he lay dying, he accepted all his shortcomings and felt sorry for them. However, over time, Avenant became more and more like a beast. He, too, tried to woo Beauty into marrying him, to no avail. But he went from a handsome friend, into an evil muderous plotter, once he heard of the Beast's fortune. Once the two halves of the same man were in the same place, they had to become unified. The Beast, the wild animal, died for the love of a woman, a human romantic ideal. Avenant, the human, died at the hands of Diana (goddess of the hunt, coincidence? I think not), as he tried to steal the wealth of another. They changed places, and by doing so, The Beast was able to be reborn as his true self, handsome, and pleasant, Avenant. Even at the end, when the Beast asks Beauty if she minds that he looks like Avenant, she plays the same game she used to play with Avenant himself.
The beastly parts of Avenant died with the body of the Beast in the Temple of Diana, while the ugly parts of the Beast melted away to reveal the handsomeness of Avenant. Both men unified created a man worthy of Beauty in character, virtue, wit, wealth, and appearance. Together with Beauty, their story transcends all age and time.

The beast as human

In de Beaumont's version, we can only depend on words to show the beast's "humanness."  His actions are pretty sterile and show little or no emotion (ritual dinners, gifts).  It is when Beauty leaves him that we understand (not see) his attachment to her.  Like a dog, he just stops feeding himself and lies down to die because she is no longer there.  Still, there is no emotional response, no declaration of love or hurt; just death (which, at this time, might as well say the same thing).  The scene that most struck me in Cocteau's La Belle et la Bete is one where the audience actually sees the Beast's overwhelming grief.  In her bedroom, he solemnly walks to her bed, pulls her covers to his face, feels it, smells it, and weeps.  He tries to fill the void she left with the smell and touch of her blanket; what animal does that?  

Assignment: 10 March 2009

Since many of you still need to watch the Cocteau film, posts will be due at midnight on Wednesday instead of Tuesday.

Pick one scene or element from Cocteau's "La Belle et La Bête" and compare it or contrast it with de Beaumont's version. You might pick something that interests you, that seems odd, or something that you missed in one version or the other, for example.