Once upon a time (movie)
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | There was once |
| Original title | La Belle et la Bete |
| Country of production | France |
| original language | French |
| Publishing year | 1946 |
| length | 90 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | Jean Cocteau |
| script | Jean Cocteau |
| production | André Paulvé |
| music | Georges Auric |
| camera | Henri Alekan |
| cut | Claude Ibéria |
| occupation | |
| |
Once upon a time , the original French title La Belle et la Bête (also known in German-speaking countries under the titles Das Untier und die Schöne and Die Schöne und die Bête ) is a French fairy tale film by Jean Cocteau . The film premiered at the Cannes International Film Festival in 1946 , and it opened in French cinemas on October 29 of the same year. It opened in German cinemas on April 8, 1947 and in Austrian cinemas on September 12, 1947. The fable told by Jean Cocteau in atmospheric pictures about external appearance and inner being, suffering and compassion, devotion and loyalty is based on the fairy tale Beauty and the Beast by Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont from 1757. The film is considered a masterpiece of poetic film and forerunner of fantasy film.
action
“In childhood, you believe what is being said and do not doubt anything. It is believed that if you pick a rose, the family will suffer misfortune. It is believed that a beast's hands start steaming as soon as it kills someone, and that the beast is ashamed of it when a young girl lives in its home. One believes a thousand other naive things. I now ask for a little of this naivety from them and say - to bring happiness to all of us - the three magic words. The real "open sesame" of our childhood: Once upon a time ... "
A merchant lives in a manor house with one son and three daughters. The son Ludovic is like his companion Avenant a drifter and gambler, the two older daughters conceited and work-shy. Only the youngest, called Bella, is of a lovable nature. Avenant courted her several times, but she refused. One day it is said that all of the father's ships have sunk, which means his father's bankruptcy. But then the father announces that one of the ships has arrived and is at anchor. Before the father can rush into town, the two older sisters want expensive presents. Bella just wants a rose.
When the father reaches the city, his creditors have already served and nothing is left to him. Since he is penniless, he goes home on a foggy night. He gets lost in a forest and comes across an unknown castle. Nobody can be seen, but a gate opens by itself and a stable takes its horse. He enters the castle, but doesn't find anyone here either; instead, human arms protrude from the walls and shine with candelabra . He finds a room with a set table and a fireplace and sits down. He doesn't meet any residents there either, only the hand of an otherwise invisible servant pours him wine. The faces of the stone fireplace figures seem alive and watch him. He drinks some wine and falls asleep; when he wakes up to a roaring scream, it is already morning.
After leaving the castle, a beautiful rose reminds him of Bella's wish. When he picks them, a being appears with a human body and the head of an animal, which calls itself " beast ". He should atone with his life for picking the rose, if none of his three daughters sacrifice themselves for him. On his oath to come back in three days if no daughter sacrifices herself for him, the beast lets him ride home on a horse called "Bride of the Wind". Bella agrees to die for her father and allows Windsbide to take her to the beast's home. When the beast appears there, Bella first passes out from fright. The beast promises Bella that she will only show herself to Bella once a day at seven p.m. to watch Bella have dinner. She explains that she wants to ask Bella the question every time, "Bella, do you want to be my wife?"
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The beast, from whose mouth and fur smoke rises after it has killed a deer at night, according to the nature of a wild beast, (the smoke symbolizes the suffering of the beast), looks for Bella and at first cannot, but then in her room Find. She gives Bella a nice present, but is kicked out of the room anyway. Bella watches the beast and condescends to take her for a walk. She treats the beast nicer out of pity, but her answer to the beast's question remains: "No".
In the grief of his daughter, believed to be dead, Bella's father falls seriously ill, and because of the debts, with the exception of the beds, his house is cleared. Bella sees her father in the magic mirror and begs the beast to go to her father. The beast questions the wish, learns from her admirer Avenant, suffers terribly and rejects Bella's wish. Nobody but the beast knows that the only way to save her life is if a girl willingly stays with her out of love. When Bella's father falls seriously ill and is soon dying, the beast finally grants Bella a week's vacation on her word of honor. She receives from the beast a golden key to the beast's treasure chamber and a glove, with which she surrenders her enchanted existence to Bella. The magic glove transports Bella to her father's house, who regains hope with her arrival and soon gets well. Bella's tears, shed in the face of her father, turn into diamonds. Her family and Avenant urge Bella not to return to the beast. The sisters steal the key. However, they do not know the way to the castle of the beast and thus to the treasury. A white horse appears, the bride of the wind. Ludovic and Avenant make their way to the castle of the beast on Windbraut's back and take the key with them.
The sisters find a precious mirror in which they only see their caricature - the image of their ugly soul. Bella, on the other hand, sees the beast as it suffers. She misses the key, but then travels to the beast without it using the magic glove.
She finds the beast dying, for that is the beast's fate if she is not loved and married - and urges her not to die. Avenant and Ludovic are trying to get into the treasury without the key because they fear a trap behind the door. Instead, Avenant steps into a pane of the glazed roof and slides down with Ludovic's help. At that moment he is hit in the back by a magic arrow, the arrow of justice, and turns into a dead beast. Before Bella's eyes, the dying beast is transformed into a living prince who looks like Avenant. The prince, who has now been released from his wild beast nature by Bella's love, takes Bella to heaven, floating away into his realm, where she can be his queen and her family waits for Bella.
Production history
Jean Cocteau had made a name for himself as a poet, writer, painter and film director since the 1910s. His best-known directorial work up to then was The Blood of a Poet from 1930. During the Second World War Cocteau had worked regularly as a screenwriter, but after the war he wanted to direct a film again himself. At the suggestion of his partner Jean Marais , he chose the French national fairy tale Beauty and the Beast because he believed that the war-torn population longed for a hopeful and optimistic story. At the same time, Cocteau put the film on as a vehicle for the career of Marais, who rose to star during the war.
The Château de Raray near Senlis can be seen as the castle of the beast . Cocteau was also enthusiastic about an old mansion near the village of Rochecorbon , which appears as the house of Bella's father. The interior scenes of the film were shot in the film studio in Saint-Maurice . Cocteau fell ill for a few days while filming, after which his assistant director René Clément briefly took over the shooting. For the production design were Lucien Carré , Christian Bérard and René Moulaert responsible; the costumes were designed by Antonio Castillo and Marcel Escoffier and completed by Pierre Cardin ; Hagop Arakelian took over the mask ; the orchestra for the film music was directed by Roger Desormière .
Cocteau originally wanted to shoot the film in color, but this project was too expensive and there was not enough color film material available. Thus arose Once upon a time , ultimately as a black and white film . But even of the material for black and white films, there was only some of varying quality available immediately after the war, so that in the finished film some scenes appear clearer and some scenes more blurred. Cocteau's cameraman Henri Alekan made a virtue out of necessity and used the “bad”, somewhat blurry-looking film material in the dreamlike scenes, where it contributes to a special atmosphere. Cocteau and Alekan wanted the style of the film to be based on the drawings by Gustave Doré and the paintings by Jan Vermeer .
In 1995, the American composer Philip Glass created an operatic version of the film in which the dialogues are replaced by vocal parts.
synchronization
The German version was created in 1947 for dialogue book and dialogue, directed by Hans Eggerth at Rex movie Bloemer & Co .
| role | actor | German Dubbing voice |
|---|---|---|
| Avenant / beast / prince | Jean Marais | Walter Richter |
| Bella | Josette Day | Victoria of Ballasko |
| Ludovic | Michel Auclair | Ralph Lothar |
Reviews
Once upon a time it was a big box-office hit in France when it was released. To this day it has received positive reviews, at Rotten Tomatoes it has a positive rating of 95% with 58 reviews, with a high average rating of 8.9 points. The consensus there writes that the film is the “ most surreal and soulful” implementation of the fairy tale through “magical optical effects and enchanting representations” .
“The often attempted but rarely achieved achievement of telling a well-known fairy tale with pure metaphor and enchantment through the sensual means of the film was almost perfectly realized by the French poet and author Jean Cocteau, in his wonderfully measured production of the ancient story of the Beauty and the beast. (...) what has been achieved is definitely also for adults and the beauties of Cocteau's concept will be recognized most by bright minds. Whether studying philosophy or not, this is a fascinating film for the senses, a fantastic poem in motion that is given full articulation on the screen. "
"The film based on a classic fairy tale motif creates an aura of the fantastic with its masks and decorations."
“Jean Cocteau's Beauty and the Beast is one of the early masterpieces of the poetic fairy tale film. The fable told in atmospheric pictures about appearance and nature, devotion and loyalty, is based on a fairy tale by Madame Leprince de Beaumont from the year 1757. "
“It's one of the most adorable films of all time. Before the days of computer effects and modern creature make-up , it is a fantasy, alive with trick shots and breathtaking effects, that brings us a beast that is lonely as a man and misunderstood as an animal. Cocteau, a poet and surrealist, did not make a “children's film”, but adapted a classic French story which, in his opinion, had a special message after the suffering of World War II: Anyone with an unhappy childhood can become a beast as an adult. (Rating: 4/4 stars) "
Awards
In 1946, Jean Cocteau's directorial work was awarded the Louis Delluc Prize for best French film of the year.
media
- Beauty and the Beast - 3-disc Blu-ray / DVD set and a 2-DVD edition under the same title from Alamode Film distributed by Al! Ve AG , Munich 2011
literature
- Thomas Klingenmaier: Once upon a time / Beauty and the Beast (La Belle et la bête). In: Andreas Friedrich (Ed.): Film genres. Fantasy and fairy tale film (= RUB . No. 18403). Reclam, Stuttgart 2003, ISBN 3-15-018403-7 , pp. 39-43.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Small article with today's picture of the manor house
- ↑ Once Upon a Time - Trivia at the Internet Movie Database
- ^ "Beauty and the Beast" at Turner Classic Movies
- ↑ Once upon a time ( memento of the original from August 10, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. at the German Synchronous Database
- ^ "Beauty and the Beast" at Turner Classic Movies
- ↑ Once upon a time at Rotten Tomatoes
- ↑ Bosley Crowther's review in The New York Times
- ↑ Lexicon of International Films - Once Upon a Time
- ↑ Once upon a time at Prisma
- ↑ "Beauty and the Beast" by Roger Ebert
- ↑ The film DVD also contains the knowledgeable audio commentary by Sir Christopher Frayling
Web links
- Once upon a time with "Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont"
- projekt-gutenberg.org
- Once upon a time in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- [1] Alamodefilm's website, description of the two DVD editions, last accessed on December 20, 2012