Beauty and the Beast: In this era, what kind of "beauty" Belle do we need?

Madame said

A fairy tale belongs to an era. Beauty and the Beast in the 21st century is not just a simple reproduction of the Disney version of the story, but also tells us the new demands of contemporary women. But at the same time, when the fairy tales of the new era are bound by more social expectations and rationality, are they still real fairy tales?

Author: Ba Sauce

Movie "Beauty and the Beast"

This is a familiar fairy tale. "Beauty and the Beast" completely subverts the prince's routine of saving the princess, telling the story of "Beauty" Belle saving the "Beast" with love. "Strange Girl" Bell is kind and brave and wants to choose her own love and life, even if her love for "Beast" completely deviates from mainstream values. In the most original version, Bell's father was a merchant without any royal blood, and the final combination of Belle and the prince as a commoner broke through class, which was a huge breakthrough of the times in the context of the creation of the story. But it's clear that in our time, the ideas that people want to convey with this story have changed.

Before I watched the movie, I thought, why do we have to remake these old stories over and over again? After reading it, I realized that we remade the fairy tale, but in order to put on the coat of the fairy tale and tell the story of this era.

Belle of the 21st century

The live-action film is said to have been remade to commemorate the 1991 Disney animation, and the creators almost recreated the classic passage of the animation of 26 years ago. But a careful comparison is not difficult to find that although the main story line has not changed, the live-action version of Belle has almost changed a person. Leaving aside the acting skills of honors student Emma, compared with the thin girl with big eyes in the animated version, Miss Watson, who looks like she will "be Hermione all her life", is obviously suitable for the live-action version.

In the animated version, although Belle also loves to read mavericks, she is always a little girl with big eyes. In the face of Gaston's forced marriage, the animated version of Belle, although disgusted, is still quite restrained, and only after driving him out of the house began to spit on Gaston's rudeness alone. But the live-action version of Belle is obviously not even willing to disguise this kind of politeness in front of people, the screen is full of her white eyes, and she directly throws out a sentence before slamming the door, "Even if I starve to death, I won't eat your things!" ”

After Belle is imprisoned in the castle by the Beast, the animated version of the Beast immediately shows a gentle side, and the servant who turns into a candlestick guides him to arrange a room for Belle and invites Belle to dinner. Although the beast became angry after being rejected, he still couldn't help but peek at Belle with the magic mirror. In the live-action version, all this is done secretly by the servants.

In the animated version, Belle in the magic mirror fell on the bed and cried, and the beast's eyes slowly changed from anger to pity. And belle in the live-action version whispered to her father early: "I will definitely find a way to escape." After being led to the room, he kept taking the evening dress into an escape rope, trying to stage the "rapunzel" drama, climbing out of the window and escaping from the tower.

In the 1991 animation, the strength of the woman still lies in her free will, the courage to transcend the world to redeem the lover, but the woman is still weak and needs protection. The man's admiration for the woman stems from the desire to protect - the beast sees the weeping Belle and feels pity, which has the drama of the wolf pack saving the beauty later, creating an opportunity for the two to further understand. Belle's affection for the beast stemmed from: "Although this man looks fierce, he is gentle at heart, especially to me." After the gradual development of affection, Belle bluntly said that life in the castle was very happy, and it is no wonder that it is described as a typical Stockholm syndrome.

And in this day and age, women need more than just protection, but respect and understanding. In villages where female literacy is not allowed, Belle presumably has no friends of the same age, and even accepts the pointing of the villagers as a "strange girl" and endures loneliness to grow up. But because of chance, I finally met a person who was willing to discuss Shakespeare with me, how could it not be a blessing?

The film uses a lot of footage to describe how the two become friends through reading, and their communication is a dialogue between two equal souls. The two were walking by the frozen lake, Belle read out one of the poems, and the beast slowly looked up at the lake and sighed softly: "It seems that all the scenery has become different, is there anything else?" "Finding the feeling of a confidant should be like this."

After the classic duo scene, The Beast and Belle come to the terrace, and the Beast asks Belle, "Are you happy here?" Belle in the anime still blinks wide-eyed and blurts out without hesitation, "Of course." ”

In the live-action version, Belle said: "How can you be happy without freedom?" ”

Another change is that Belle rushes back to the village to save her father, but is locked up by ignorant villagers. In the animation, the little teacup that secretly followed Belle back to the village managed to rescue the father and daughter. In the live-action version, the two are locked up in a carriage, and Belle hopes to rush back to the castle to stop the villagers from fighting the beast. Of course, belle's father, who had to see his daughter return to him, would not agree—Belle's father had abandoned his wife infected with the plague to protect his daughter, so his father's only wish in this life was to protect Belle. At this time, the father and daughter had a short but profound conversation, and finally the father had to admit: "Maybe the protection is too much." So the two worked together to escape, and the father let his daughter protect the person he loved.

Many people said that the role still made people forget Hermione, seeing her holding a branch to face the wolves, as if she was going to shout "all petrified" in the next second. But in contrast, this role is really suitable for Watson, whether the script chooses her, or she chooses the script, and in the end, what the director wants us to see is this heroic Disney princess.

A new age of fairy tales

Coming out of the movie theater, I saw my aunt wiping her tears, and the schoolgirl who was smiling and saying "not bad" to her companions, and I thought that no matter what age, women need fairy tales. But animation is a story for children, and the main audience of the live-action version is adults. How to let adults be moved by fairy tales again after they grow up, the director did spend a lot of thought. The live-action version has 30 minutes more than the animation, almost all of which is used to enrich the background of the story and the personality of the characters, so that the whole story looks more rational and logical.

From the live-action version, we know that the reason why the prince is so arrogant and conceited and does not understand love stems from the life of the young widow and the rough treatment of her father; the reason why the village girl Belle is so different from the villagers is because of her and her father's outsider status - the single father who used to work as a painter in Paris moved to the village with his daughter, the daughter is still full of hope for Paris, likes to read Shakespeare, and neither father nor daughter has been able to integrate into the real country life.

The live-action version also gives the supporting characters more drama. The animated version doesn't explain too much why the servants who have become furniture treat Belle so kindly, everything is like a "protagonist aura", but these cute supporting characters in the movie have their own joys and sorrows, they use Belle as a lifesaver to lift the spell, and also use this to advise the owner of the beast not to give up the opportunity.

The annoying male second Gaston is also cute in the live-action version. Although he is conceited and rude, he is a soldier who loves adventure and war, and only thinks of "conquest" in his heart, looking forward to becoming a hero in the epic. The reason why he called on the villagers to fight the beasts was not for the love they could not get, but more for the realization of his long-cherished wish to return to the battlefield and become a hero.

It was only that heroes were not needed in this era, individualism was rejected, and any element that might be complained about was carefully ruled out: the servants in the castle had to be evenly distributed in skin color, and after the curse was removed, there was no difference between inside and outside the castle, the villagers and the inhabitants of the castle hugged and wept, and all gathered in the castle to dance, regardless of class, rich or poor. Belle and the prince were drowned on the dance floor like everyone else, and if it weren't for the big cousin's bright blue bow, it would be impossible to see where the protagonist's aura was.

Obviously, the live-action version of Belle is more in line with the expectations of women in today's society, and the film does not discriminate against people of color, does not ignore the lower working people, and transforms "Beauty and the Beast" into a "politically correct" carnival. But Bell, as the spokesperson for the new female, is no longer cute, she lives too "right", slightly aggressive towards the backward villagers, in the face of the male second rude and even tough enough to forget the politeness, she always fights, and finally loses the courage to lie on the bed and cry.

There should be two kinds of people in the world, people who watch fairy tales and people who don't, and the director of Beauty and the Beast obviously belongs to the latter. We see too much rationality and don't see emotional, flesh-and-blood people like the "nasty" Gaston. In the end, for fear of not being right, we are afraid to say love again.