The verbal prologue bugged me. It says, in effect: children listen to fairytales and believe all sorts of fantastic things, about magic and flying carpets and the like; please be a child again for the next little while. (To highlight the this-is-for-children aspect, I suppose, the opening credits are written out by hand on a blackboard while we watch.) The film really cheats here, no question about it. The right to have the audience "believe" (so to speak) in fantastic events, or realistic events, has to be earned. Cocteau can't just command it. It's as if he's saying, "I admit my film won't really grip you as it stands, so pretend you're about eight years old, and see if that works."
I suppose it's already clear that it didn't have the intended effect on me. In my defence I plead that the whole film was half-baked. (I don't speak French. Maybe a lot was lost when the dialogue was poorly translated into subtitles. Personally I doubt it.) Neither the beauty nor the beast was a discernible character. Cocteau doesn't appear to have a very clear idea of what his story is about, and directs as if he expected his prologue ("Be enchanted, I tell you!") to do all the work. The final scene is at once abrupt and pointlessly bizarre. Some of the visual effects were nice enough, but they smell too strongly of artifice. When characters stepped out of doors I half expected to see the outside of a French film studio. There is, however, a rather pleasing score by George Auric.
Had this been made in Hollywood by no-one in particular it would be forgotten by now.
I suppose it's already clear that it didn't have the intended effect on me. In my defence I plead that the whole film was half-baked. (I don't speak French. Maybe a lot was lost when the dialogue was poorly translated into subtitles. Personally I doubt it.) Neither the beauty nor the beast was a discernible character. Cocteau doesn't appear to have a very clear idea of what his story is about, and directs as if he expected his prologue ("Be enchanted, I tell you!") to do all the work. The final scene is at once abrupt and pointlessly bizarre. Some of the visual effects were nice enough, but they smell too strongly of artifice. When characters stepped out of doors I half expected to see the outside of a French film studio. There is, however, a rather pleasing score by George Auric.
Had this been made in Hollywood by no-one in particular it would be forgotten by now.