PhilPaine.com

Jean Cocteau’s “Beau­ty and the Beast” has long been a favourite of film-mak­ers because of its inven­tive use of effects and its visu­al charm. But it has a lit­er­ary strength, as well. It con­veys the feel­ing of folk­tale. It has the under­cur­rents of sex­u­al ten­sion, dan­ger, and cru­el­ty that of gen­uine folk­lore. Cocteau employs all the tra­di­tion­al folk­loric tech­niques, such as the pat­tern of three-fold rep­e­ti­tion, which a mod­ern sto­ry-teller would eschew. He real­ized that film was clos­er in tech­niques and sen­si­bil­i­ty to the folk­tale than to the mod­ern nov­el.