Beauty and the Beast

Outline

Introduction

Part I. The authors

Part II. The story

Part III. Adaptations

Conclusion

References

Introduction

Beauty and the Beast is a French story written by Mme de Villeneuve in 1740Mme de Beaumont published an abridged and more famous version in 1756

The first adaptation on screen was made in 1903; since then, remade more than 25 times

A masterpiece by Jean Cocteau was made in 1946 and presented during the first International Cannes festival

Beauty and the Beast (1991); Walt Disney; Directed by Gary Trousdale

Part I. The authors

The first published version of the fairy tale was a meandering rendition by Madame Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve, published in La jeune américaine, et les contes marins in 1740 Madame de Villeneuve (1695-1755), French authorShe is considered the original author of the story of Beauty and the Beast (Belle et la Bête) Her lengthy version was abridged and published by Mme de Beaumont

Part I. The authors

The best-known written version was an abridgement of M. Villeneuve's work published in 1756 by Mme Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont, in Magasin des enfants, ou dialogues entre une sage gouvernante et plusieurs de ses élèves; an English translation appeared in 1757Mme de Beaumont (1711-1780) is a French novelist; she published collections she called "magazines" of educational and moral stories and poems for children, containing the famous story Beauty and the Beast

Beauty and the Beast TV-Series 19

87-1990 Linda Hamilton and Ron Perlman

Part II. The story

Beauty's father, caught in a storm, finds shelter in the Beast's palace. Before leaving, he plucks a rose to bring back to Beauty, offending his unseen host, who tells him he must dieThe Beast then says that if one of the man's daughters will return to suffer in his place, he may live Beauty goes to the castle; the Beast asks her to be his wife; she refuses; offers to be his friendShe asks to go back home for a week to say farewell to her father

Part II. The story

Her sisters convince Belle to stay longer than agreed with the Beast

When she goes back to the castle, the Beast is lying near death from distress at her failure to return

She begs him to live, so that he may be her husband, and by this act the Beast is transformed into a handsome prince

Beauty's family comes to live with them at the palace (in the original story, sisters punished)

Part III. Adaptations

A sumptuous French version of Beauty and the Beast (La Belle et la Bête) was made in 1946, directed by Jean Cocteau, starring Jean Marais as the Beast and Josette Day as Beauty In 1991 Disney produced an animated film of Beauty and the Beast with screenplay by Linda Woolverton, music by Alan Menken, and lyrics by Howard Ashman. It won Academy Awards for Best Song and Best Original Score and was the first animated feature ever nominated for a Best Picture Oscar

La Belle et la bête (1946) by Jean Cocteau

Beauty sacrifices

herself for her father and goes

to the castle. She will

discover that the Beast is not

as wild and inhuman than it

looks

Part III. Adaptations

The Disney film was adapted for the stage by Linda Woolverton and Alan Menken, who had worked on the film

Beauty and the Beast (series), broadcast from 1987 to 1990, relationship between Catherine, an attorney who lived in New York City (Linda Hamilton), and Vincent, a gentle but lion-faced "beast (Ron Perlman), who dwells in the tunnels beneath the city

The ogre Shrek is forced by Lord Farquaad to rescue Princess Fiona from a dragon for Farquaad to marry. Along the way, Shrek befriends a talking Donkey, and falls in love with Fiona

Conclusion

The King Kong films are based loosely on the folktale. The last lines of the original movie in 1933 are:

Police Lieutenant: Well, Denham, the airplanes got him

Carl Denham: Oh no, it wasn't the airplanes. It was beauty killed the beast

Interesting to note that a lot of French stories include a beautiful woman, a handsome man, and an ugly “beast” (the Phantom of the Opera; the Hunchback of Notre Dame, Cyrano de Bergerac)

References

http://www.answers.com/Beauty%20and%20the%20Beast

http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/beautybeast/index.html

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0038348/

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0024216/

http://www.lib.rochester.edu/camelot/cinder/BB1.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fairy_tales