Cocteau's Beauty and the Beast

Title: Beauty and the Beast
Director: Jean Cocteau
Year: 1946
Awards: Ranked #26 in Empire magazines "The 100 Best Films Of World Cinema" in 2010

Beauty and the Beast is a 1946 French film directed by Jean Cocteau. An interesting fact about the director, just to throw in there, is that he is also a poet. The film is about a girl named Belle. One day, her father gets lost in the woods. He eventually comes upon a castle, home to the Beast. He takes a rose and is caught. the Beast tells him that he for doing this, he must die, or one of his daughters must. Belle learns of this and sacrifices herself to the Beast. The Beast falls in love with her and every night he asks her to marry him. The theory used here is psycho-analytical as it deals with human nature, like Rashomon.
The first article is Cocteau’s Beauty & the Beast: The Poet as Monster. The article starts out by talking about how the beginning and end of the film opens and close with the flight of an arrow. The first one is fired by Avenant and lands next to Belle. The final arrow is fired by the statue of Diana, goddess of chastity, and lands in Avenant’s heart. This arrow sets off a metamorphosis where the Beast and Avenant switch. The ending of the film was created by Cocteau himself. It symbolizes that in the end, in terms of appearance, Belle is not back to the same starting point as the Beast now looks like Avenant. It also shows the whole plot is a trick by destiny and to force her to grow up because in the beginning of the movie, she turns down Avenant over her ill father and leaves him. Another interesting thing in the article is the difference between how the Beast actually became the monster. In the original story, “a wicked fairy condemned me to keep this appearance until a beautiful woman agreed to marry me.” In the film, he is condemned to this appearance because his parents didn’t believe in fairies and only the look of love can save him. This is an idea that parents have to have the same simple faith as children do.
The second article I found is titled “Beauty and the Beast (La Belle et la Bête).” This article basically talked about the synopsis off the plot but It does has an interesting quote from Cocteau about the music in the film. "At my request, Georges Auric has not kept to the rhythm of the film but cut across it so that when film and music come together it seems as though by the grace of God.” Auric is the film’s composer and Cocteau wanted a score for this film that broke all the rules. he all set out to do the same with the cinematography. "People have decided once and for all that fuzziness [soft or out-of-focus shots] is poetic," he wrote. "No, since in my eyes poetry is precision, numbers. I'm pushing Alekan in precisely the opposite direction from what fools think is poetic." Clearly, Cocteau was trying to push the boundaries of film-making in an entire new direction.
I personally liked this movie. I thought it was a very interesting take on the story and nothing like the Disney version. The visual effects were neat and seems impossible for the year that it was made in. I like the storyline and the characters and thought the Beast was a very tragic character with his longing to be loved. However, the ending of the film was a little over the top and sort of out there but in a way, it makes sense. When I was watching the movie, i kept thinking that the music doesn’t go with the film at all but after finding out what he wanted with the music from the article, I can see why it is that way. Overall, it was very enjoyable to watch.

Sources:
1.Popkin, Michael. "Cocteau's Beauty and the Beast: The Poet as Monster." Literature
Film Quarterly 10.2 (1982): 100. Communication & Mass Media Complete. EBSCO.
Web. 29 Nov. 2010.

2. http://course1.winona.edu/pjohnson/h140/beauty.htm

Watchmen

Director: Zack Snyder
TRT: 162 min.
Year-2009

Based upon the graphic novel written by Alan Moore and illustrated by Dave Gibbions, “Watchmen” is set in an alternate universe where Richard Nixon has forced all costumed superheroes into retirement. When one them, The Comedian, is murdered, a rebellion vigilante named Rorschach sets out to find who is responsible for his death. The movie is directed by Zack Snyder.
An article I found that talks about the difference between the book and movie is from the AV Club. It is titled, “Book vs. Film: Watchmen.” in the book, the story has a comic within a comic called “The Black Freighter.” in the movie, Zack Snyder has cut this storyline out completely except for a second or two when we see the kid by the newsstand reading the comic.
Snyder also changed scenes from the book in the movie. In the movie, Dr. Manhattan replicated himself in the bedroom with Silk Spectre while they are hooking up. This scene happened in the book as well but it has been altered by Snyder. In the book, she is alarmed and appalled in a way that he did this. Clearly, he has never tried this with her before. In the movie tho, Dr. Manhattan has done this before with her. Seeing that she isn’t happy, he goes “I thought you liked this.”
Another difference between the book and movie is the dialogue. The dialogue is altered between the book and movie. For example: Rorschach answers the question, “We got a jail full of guys out here who hate your guts. What in hell do you got?” with “Your hands, my pleasure” instead of “Your hands, my perspective.”
Also in Watchmen, the ending of the movie is changed from the book. In the book, the villain, Ozymandias uses Dr. Manhattan to unleash an alien into New York City which kills hundreds and hundreds of people. In the Movie, Snyder has it that a bomb goes off and does. Snyder did this to make the film more relevant and realistic.
I have read the graphic novel myself. I can see why Snyder would change the things around like he did. The book was very detailed and drawn out. It also had a lot of sub-plots. To put this all in a film, would be implausible. Snyder stayed very faithful to the book as best as he can and did a good job.

Akira Kurosawa's Rashomon

Title: Rashomon
Director: Akira Kurosawa
TRT: 1hr 28 min
Year-1951
Awards: 1951 Venice Film Festival Golden Lion: Akira Kurosawa

Directed by the great Akira Kurosawa, “Rashomon” is actually based on two stories by Ryūnosuke Akutagawa. The first one is Rashomon which provides the setting for the film and the second is In the Grove, providing the film with the characters and plot-line. The film tells the story of a rape of a woman and the murder of her husband. The story is told from different viewpoints such as from the bandit, the woman, the murdered husband, and the narrator. The theory of film that this falls under is psychoanalytical. Kurosawa focuses on human nature and what people will in the name of honor as well as in shame. In the movie, the woman wants her husband murdered because of the shame she has do to being being raped by the thief.
The first article I found is an online article entitled “Rashomon (Film). It is a very in depth article about the film. One of things interesting about the article is that it talks about the motivations of each character in the film. In the bandit’s version, he accepts blame but tells that duel between him and the samurai was an honorable one. In the wife’s version, she feels morally guilty so she says that she stabbed her husband. In the husband’s version, who is dead at the time they are each telling their story, is told through a medium, he is ashamed to what happened in the woods. The article also talks about other things suck as how Kurosawa was influenced by silent films. He states, “I like silent pictures and I always have ... I wanted to restore some of this beauty. I thought of it, I remember in this way: one of techniques of modern art is simplification, and that I must therefore simplify this film." One last tidbit from the article is that it talks about the lighting in the film. The film uses sunlight to symbolize evil and sin in the film. An example is when the woman sees the sun and gives in to the bandit’s desire.
The second article is from Literature Film Quarterly entitled “Light and Darkness in Rashomon.” In the article they look at the different things about human nature. The light side (the good side) and the dark (the bad side). The film also shows the light through the use of sunlight and the dark by the rain and the ruined Rashomon gate. The article states the light represents reason and the dark represents human impulses. An example of the light. At the end of the movie, the woodcutter leaves with the infant they find at the end of the movie in his arms. This represents the potential harmony.
I have seen Rashomon a couple of times. It is an extremely well-made movie. It also shows how great of a director Akira Kurosawa is. He is able to use only three settings which are the ruined gate, the woods, and the courtyard and weave and interesting and complex story out of them. The cinematography with the use of sunlight is remarkable and the dialogue is sharp. This film has also influenced other mother with its use of telling stories from different points of view. One recent movie I can think of off the top of my head is Vantage Point that uses this. Rashomon is one of the best foreign films ever made.

Sources:

1.) http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Rashomon_(film)

2.) McDonald, Keiko I. "Light and Darkness in Rashomon." Literature Film Quarterly 10.2 (1982): 120. Communication & Mass Media Complete. EBSCO. Web. 29 Nov. 2010.

Current Events Article

The first article, “Film of Paul Bowles Short Story Rediscovered,” is a pretty interesting article. It tells how director Sara Driver, got a call from a stranger about how her first film “You are Not I” was found. It was neat to see how the director, with a shoe-string budget of only $12,000 and no rights to produce Bowles’ story, went about and made it anymore. She shipped a copy of the film to Bowles’ himself and he liked it. He even wrote her a critique on it and granted her the rights to the story. Another interesting fact in the article is that she filmed it in Western New Jersey and only in six days. Overall, it was a good little piece on the movie and how it came back around after so many years of believing it was lost.



The second article, “Brazil’s Best, Restored and Ready for a 21st-Century Audience is about the film “Limite” It is a 1930 film by director Mario Peixoto. It is showing at the World Cinema Foundation Festival. The article describes the movie as visually poetic and abstract in a way. It is also a movie more talked about and seen and is an independent film. When the film came out, it was detested by the cultural right wing and distributors thought it was too difficult for the audience. This was Peixoto’s only film he made. Walter Salles, Director of Central Station, describes the moves as “ a film of transcendent poetry and boundless imagination.” The writer never goes into what the movie is about, perhaps trying to get the reader intrigued to what it is all about.