Film Comment: Beauty and the Beast

Beauty and the Beast (La belle et la bête, 1946) is a classic French film directed by Jean Cocteau.   Most of us know the rudiments of the story.   To save her father (Marcel Andre) from a death sentence declared by a werewolf-like beast (Jean Marais), a beautiful young virgin (Josette Day) must agree to substitute herself as the beast’s victim.  She reluctantly but willingly goes to meet her fate only to realize that her host is actually a sensitive and caring person.

Unlike the 1991 Disney version, this fairy tale film was never intended for viewing by children.  The Beast’s castle is a mixture of elegant beauty and creepy visual effects which may be frightening for children.  The beast is truly a beast and looks very much like a traditional werewolf.  The visual and poetic beauty of the film can’t obscure the fact that it deals with many adult themes such as familial duty,  love, violence, frustration, and sexual tension.  An underlying tension is present when one realizes that the intensely heterosexual Beast is portrayed by Jean Marais, the longtime homosexual lover of the director, Jean Cocteau.

We may not like to acknowledge it, but, biologically, we are animals.  Animals are innocent in their selfishness, but, as sentient beings, we are not.   We are a mixture of the law of the Jungle, survival of the fittest, and of our higher impulses.  By our own power, we cannot overcome our selfishness (the true essence of sin) and our separation from God.

Just as the Beast is redeemed by the pure self-sacrificing love of the Belle, we are saved by accepting the gift of Jesus’s sacrifice.

"That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; And be renewed in the spirit of your mind; And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness." Ephesians 4:22-24.