BEAUTY AND THE BEAST

New Zealand Listener, Volume 36, Issue 928, 24 May 1957, Page 15

BEAUTY AND THE BEAST

(Robert Kapferer-André Paulvé) Y Cert. \VHEN I wrote about the English version of Les Parents Terribles a fortnight ago I didn’t expect to. be back so soon in Cocteau country, this time with a film by. the master himself. Beauty and the Beast was bound to be exciting, and it is; and if I say I found it also just a little disappointing I’m being strictly relative. Cocteau’s Orphée -seen in New Zealand, alas, only by film societies-was for me one of the most éxciting films ever. I suppose I looked for another Orphée. In his diary about Beauty and the Beast, Cocteau said he didn’t aim at poetry-that must come of its own accord; and in the event the film is only part fantastic. The first shot of Beauty’s face reflected in the floor she is polishing is like the first faint breath of magic, but generally the early scenes at the merchant’s house have a_ beautiful and almost rustic simplicity. Cocteau’s remarkable hand with the fantastic shows itself when, lost in the forest, the merchant, his great shadow preceding him, comes to the Beast’s palace. Here we're in a world of wonderful invention: livirig arms hold candles which light themselves as he walks along the corridors, eyes turn to watch in the carved faces under the mantel, and so on, The Beast’s first appearance startles: it isn’t just a man in a mask-Jean Marais uses eyes and voice to create a fantastic yet credible and even moving figure. To the part of Avenant also, a friend of Beauty’s brother, he brings a fine intensity. As for Beauty, Josette Day makes her all that she should be. Elsewherein costume, decor and so on-Cocteau has been well served; his own eye for the telling detail is as good as you'd expect; and crammed with . striking images and compositions, the film has been beautifully photographed by Alekan. Why was I disappointed? First, I suppose, because the story hasn’t the same interest for me as the story of Orpheus and Eurydice. I admired, I suspended disbelief, but this time I was not completely carried away. More important, for me the ending doesn’t quite come off. With so much that’s strange and wonderful happening at the Beast’s palace, where Avenant and Beauty’s brother have broken into Diana’s Temple to steal the Beast’s treasures, the Beast’s sudden transformation, Prince Charming’s charm, is almost anti-climax to all the preceding inténsity. Presently there’s. another big moment when the Prince and Beauty fly up into the air-but even this is carried too far. Anywhere else in the film these flaws would have been absorbed in the rich surrounding texture. As it is they are no doubt little enough to complain about in a film that’s otherwise so satisfying.