MovieChat Forums > La Belle et la Bête (1947) Discussion > Someone explain the ending to me

Someone explain the ending to me

posted 15 years ago by silverkid
2 replies | jump to latest

The beast dies. The brother falls into the treasure house and is turned into a beast. Are we to assume this is what happened to the beast when he was a man? Is the brother still alive (as a beast) or is he dead? And why did the beast come back to life as a human? He says its because someone "looked" at him the right way. But it seemed as if the brother "took over" the place of the beast, thus giving the beast his normal face and life back. And also, she also looked at him because he was dying, and she felt bad because it was her fault. It wasnt a look of love. She was fond of the beast, but did not want to marry him. Of course, now she'll marry the gorgeous looking prince who has a kingdom and is wealthy.

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[–] NY Whovian 14 years ago

I think you have two of the characters mixed up. Belle's brother is Ludovic, the young man with the dark hair. The other young man is Avenant, who is in love with Belle. It'smade clear towards the beginning of the film that he has proposed to Belle several times, but she has always turned him down because her family needs her.

When Avenant dies in Diana's Pavilion, he becomes the Beast, because although he was handsome, he was greedy and a scoundrel. The Beast, although he is ugly, has a good heart, and that's why he is revived as the handsome Prince Ardent. Ardent explains that he had been placed under a curse, and the only way to reverse it was to have someone look at him with love. If you pay attention, you'll see that, though Belle always addresses him as 'la Bete' (Beast), when she comes back, afraid that he is dying, she calls him 'ma Bete' (*my* Beast) as she searches for him, having realized that she has fallen in love with him despite his appearance.

It is worth noting, too, that all three characters - Avenant, Beast, and the Prince - are all played by Jean Marais, as they are three facets of the same person, the Prince being a blend of the other two.

[–] KingCobra686 9 years ago

The main point that the movie was trying to make was that the Beast was good and ended up as a handsome prince, and Avenant was selfish and not a good person, so he ended up turning into a beast on the outside too. The explanations for how all of that happened were kind of confusing.