All this Twilighting has got me thinking...of other days, other Belles....so much complaining about bad role models, so many people saying that Bella and her Twilight romance is giving young women the wrong message....
The reason it's so powerful is that it's been ingrained in the hoooman psyche for centuries, n'est pas? Young beautiful woman, sighing, heavy with sensual, unfulfilled promise...the danger of deadly love, the threat of bestial violence, the tender, bestial lover...hmm, so very familiar.
Once upon a time, a beautiful young woman sacrificed her freedom so that her father would live, and in the world of the story this was of course the right thing to do. Then, in what may have been the first ever romanticised documentation of Stockholm Syndrome, she falls in love with her beast...so redeeming him and transforming him into a handsome prince....
My feminist leanings cannot blind me to the fact that Jean Cocteau's 1949 b&w "La Belle et La Bete is a masterpiece. An artist created the film's enchanted castle set, long before computer animated graphics came along and threatened to take the magic away. Surreal, beautiful, merci Cocteauxxxx you have redeemed the beast for me....
ps our copy is an old video from the 80s, with a very young David Stratton introducing and doing a bit of a spiel. Marvellous! He still had white hair and bad teeth :D
beautifully written, Missus.
ReplyDeleteloverly!
ReplyDeleteyour post, not so much the flick. although the flick is a wonder :)