My book on _Creative Encounters with French Film_ (Mellen 1993) takes the whole approach of dealing with the techniques used by the directors (consciously or not) to engage the audience in "participation" -- by which I don't just mean "identification". As for Beauty and the Beast, Gretta Garbo said immediately after Cocteau's film came out: "Give me back la Bete!" See Chapter on Cocteau in above text. ! Prof. Emily Zants, U. of HI "... and the whole of Combray ... sprang ! ! [log in to unmask] into being, town and gardens alike, from ! ! FAX: (808) 237-8284 my cup of tea." Proust's Butterfly Effect! ! http://www2.hawaii.edu/~zants/zants.html ! On Tue, 27 Feb 1996, Jerry Johnson wrote: > Mikel J. Koven states: > > >Film studies may be a much stronger discipline if theoretical concepts > >were applied to actual filmgoing experiences. > > I agree completely. There seems to be a large gap in film scholarship > between the filmmaker's intentions and the audience's reading. The viewer > as active participant is too often ignored. > > Right now I'm doing a study of how children engage the film texts offered > to them. I'm receiving some very interesting feedback. For instance, many > adults believe most Disney animated features to be very reactionary in that > the conflicts are always resolved with the re-establishment of the > patriarchal, heterosexual order. But I recently asked two 8-year-old girls > what they thought of "Beauty and the Beast," and they both said they were > very dissapointed that the beast changed into a man at the end because he > was "boring" now. This Disney text led them to conclude that the > traditional heterosexual couple (at least in this specific instance) is > unsatisfying! Now I'm not claiming "Beauty and the Beast" is a subversive > film, but these two girls gave something of a subversive reading to it. In > all the criticism I have read on the film, such a possibility has never > been considered. > > Check out the film criticism of Robin Wood for a smart scholar who takes > into consideration the active interpretation of the audience. > > Jerry > > ---- > To signoff SCREEN-L, e-mail [log in to unmask] and put SIGNOFF SCREEN-L > in the message. Problems? Contact [log in to unmask] > ---- To signoff SCREEN-L, e-mail [log in to unmask] and put SIGNOFF SCREEN-L in the message. Problems? Contact [log in to unmask]