BYU-Idaho invites you to rediscover a tale as old as time on Friday at 7 p.m. in the Jacob Spori building.
This Friday at 7 p.m. students are invited to come and be a guest to watch Beauty and the Beast as they’ve never seen it before.
In French, this film’s name is La Belle et la Bête.
“The film is poetic, surreal and dream-like,” said Micheal Cornick, a professor of humanities, art and theatre. “It truly gets to the depth of what we truly love about human beings: What we see inside of ourselves.”
Jean Cocteau, a famed director, directed the 1946 film. La Belle et la Bête has widely been regarded as one of the greatest films of cinema. True to its time and culture, the movie will be in black and white with English subtitles.
According to Cornick, acclaimed Critic Roger Ebert shared his insight for the modern audience, “(Some) will find a film that may involve them much more deeply than the Disney cartoon, because it is not just a jolly comic musical but deals — as all fairy tales do — with what we truly dread and desire.”
The original story was written in 1740 by French novelist Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve.
While the Disney cartoon is a well-known classic, the international film provides a different perspective.
“International films allow me to see through the eyes of another culture, another time period and another part of the world,” Cornick said. “We all have hopes and disappointments, joy and sadness, times of difficulties and ease. We may have differences in how these are manifest and how we may approach them, but we are all children of God and we shouldn’t lose sight of that.”
Another aspect that sets this film apart from its counterparts is how it is filmed.
La Belle et la Bête is “one of the most magical of all films,” said Ebert according to Cornick. “Before the days of computer effects and modern creature makeup, here is a fantasy alive with trick shots and astonishing effects, giving us a Beast who is lonely like a man and misunderstood like an animal.”
The depth and plot of this film dive deeper than the color and fantasy of other fairytale recreations.
“(This adaptation) had a special message after the suffering of World War II,” Ebert said according to Cornick.
All are welcome to come and learn something new from this film.
“We hope students from all majors and cultures will come and enjoy learning about cinema from around the world,” Cornick said.