3. Introduction
Beauty and the Beast is
a French story written
by Mme de Villeneuve in
1740
Mme 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
4. Beauty and the Beast (1991);
Walt Disney; Directed by Gary
Trousdale
5. 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
author
She 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
6. 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 1757
Mme 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
8. 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 die
The 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 friend
She asks to go back home for a week to say
farewell to her father
9. 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)
10. 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
13. 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
14. 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
15. 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)
