MovieChat Forums > La belle et la bête (2016) Discussion > Disappointed that the director chose to ...

Disappointed that the director chose to focus on Beauty rather than the

posted 11 years ago by MaleManX
4 replies | jump to latest

Beast. According to interviews, the director Christophe Gans decided to focus his movie on Beauty and her flourishing or whatever, instead of the Beast or even instead of focusing on both the Beast and Beauty equally. Instead, the Beast is reduced to the role of supporting character used for the sole purpose of developing Beauty.

I haven't seen the movie and will maybe update once I have, but I get the feelings based on the first reviews and on Gans' declarations that this movie is more just Beauty than Beauty and the Beast.

I personally am more interested in the Beast, why and how he came to be transformed, his struggles being a Beast and his desperation and feelings of hopelessness and loneliness as time goes on. Haven't enough movies focused on the fourishing of the female characters?

When I think of fairytales, it's clear that they tend to favor female characters more. Yet Beauty and the Beast is a fairy tale where it would make more sense to focus on the beast, because a beast is not something that you see everyday, contrary to a woman. A woman's flourishing or whatever, has been the subject of so many movies. Yet a story about a Beast, that's not something you see every day. Not to mention the Beast's story has always fascinated me.

Who is the Beast? How does he live, how does he cope with his situation? I've always loved reading different authors' take on these questions, as I have read quite a few versions, adaptations, or books loosely based on the story. So many aspects to explore, so much material there for a really great film. How disappointing that the director went with Beauty instead of the Beast.

*sigh* I'll still go see it but I go in already disappointed with the choices made by the director. Hopefully, this will keep my expectations down.

[–] TOP02001 11 years ago

I'm not sure why this is disappointing. Every interview I've looked at tells me that the man has done his 'Beauty and the Beast' research, more than anyone who has adapted the film before. He is even going back to the ORIGINAL source of the literary version of the tale (before Beaumont).

Haven't enough movies focused on the fourishing of the female characters?

This part of course made me laugh as almost every movie is about men and is filled with men. Statistics prove that there needs to be MORE movies focused on female characters:
http://www.nyfa.edu/film-school-blog/gender-inequality-in-film/

And while I agree that it would be interesting to learn more of the Beast, what makes you think that it won't? In fact, Villeneuve (who wrote the original) gives the Beast a bigger and more detailed backstory than Beaumont did in her condensed version. I think we will get both as I've also heard Gans go off about redemption.

However, at the same time, Beauty will remain the protagonist because she is the protagonist in the story and is also the main character in most variants of the animal bridegroom tale (I can't think of one where the beast is to be honest off the top of my head). In my own studies of the Beauty and the Beast archetype, it is Beauty that is tested rather than the Beast. For instance, when she stays too long with her family rather than returning to the Beast OR in "Cupid and Psyche," when she is warned to never look upon her husband. So this choice makes PERFECT sense...

Also, I think one reason there are more female characters as the 'main' character in fairy tales is because a large portion of the familiar folk tales (as there are numerous ones from various cultures) were written for women rather than children or came from female storytellers. Still there are several fairy/folk tales about men.

[–] juliaeffertz 11 years ago

Well, we saw it here at the Berlinale, and sadly I have to say that the story does not develop either of the two character in terms of their respective journeys and the love that eventually develops between them. That I did find baffling.

There is very little time the two characters actually spend together and most guests at the screening that I spoke to agreed that, while the film is visually stunning, the heart of the story was severely lacking.

[–] Suntory_Times 10 years ago

Gans does have a fascination with female characters. Note, I wouldn't normally say such a thing but he was made to add male characters to Silent Hill as there where not any originally. This may not be such a strange thing at first, but to get to that he had to change the gender of the main character in the source material to a female. So it would seem to have been done on purpose.

In the case of this film. Scenes involving Beast would be far more expensive and that probably is part of the reason for the focus on Beauty instead.

Film Reverie: http://filmreverie.blogspot.com.au/
My film diary: http://letterboxd.com/filmreverie/

[–] cookiela2001 10 years ago

One could focus on the Beast....but he is traditionally a mystery figure to both Beauty and the reader/audience. This version showed much more of his story via flashbacks than the 1940's version.

What is distancing about the Beast here is there's so much CGI going on with his face, there's very little real emotion that comes through...which makes the character stay too remote.

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