Beauty and the Beast by Jean Cocteau
Great poet, author, and polymath Cocteau was. Additionally, he directed some stunning movies. This is a journal detailing the production of his “Beauty and the Beast” movie. He is very open and honest about his experiences, including the challenges. A few weeks after World War Two ended, they began filming. Because they were filming in the countryside and there were so many poor people there, you hear about power outages and prop theft. People become sick while they were filming, and you hear about the lack of funding. Regarding technological difficulties, he is incredibly detailed and vibrant. A thousand mechanical parts and pieces are mentioned, along with smoke machines, magnesium torches, red powder, and other things.
Beauty and the Beast by Jean Cocteau
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Many people have skimmed over Cocteau’s long list of ailments that he and others experienced while filming “Beauty and the Beast” because they seemed unrelated. Unfortunately, individuals who do so risk missing Cocteau’s masochistic aesthetic’s main message, which is that the artist must overcome all obstacles in order to create his masterpiece. In the same way that “Beauty and the Beast” struggled during production yet triumphed as a timeless piece of art, suffering is an integral component of his creativity. The great technical challenges experienced in making the movie were paralleled by Cocteau’s suffering at the time.
Any serious student of either Cocteau or the film will benefit from reading it since it brilliantly captures the entire strange struggle he and the other participants in the picture went through. A fantastic novel. Cocteau’s seemingly insurmountable challenges in making one of the finest fantasy movies ever are described in “Diary…” and includes a lot of on-location pictures. Highly recommend it for the price and addictively beautiful reading. This book explains in detail the pains and pleasures involved in making a movie. Similar to Sidney Lumet’s book on filmmaking, it offers insight into the director’s personality and distinctive approach to his profession. A page-turning book with a joyful resolution.
Cocteau wrote in his diary about the challenges he faced while producing “La Belle et la Bête,” his most well-known film, which was released in 1946. The film was essentially plagued from the beginning by diseases (everyone involved seemed to suffer some serious illness or injury during filming), production issues (poor film stock, unusable equipment), and union disagreements. This constant barrage of misery and annoyance can seem pretty monotonous at times; I lost interest when Cocteau went into great detail about his eczema and other bodily ailments.
