SOURCE: Galef, David. “A Sense of Magic Reality and Illusion in Cocteau's Beauty and the Beast.” Literature Film Quarterly 12, no. 2 (1984): 96-106.

In the following essay, Galef discusses the ways in which Cocteau's use of his camera lend magical elements to Beauty and the Beast.

The medium of cinema, allied with the technology of the camera, contains a curious paradox in what it projects. As a camera recording objectively, it has the impact of reality; as film, it has a certain dreamlike quality and can be the agent of innumerable illusions. A talented director can make use of this marriage of reality and illusion, especially if the theme is fanciful in nature. In his film Beauty and the Beast, Jean Cocteau uses the illusion of film to create magic, while the camera itself gives validity to what appears on the screen. The combination of orchestrated effects and the immediate...