"Belle" and the Art of Retelling

By Max McAuley

We, as a people, have been telling stories since the dawn of time. Some would go so far as to say that they are as vital to us as food or water. However, unlike these essential resources, stories aren’t consumed as we use them. After a story has been carefully crafted, we can tell it again and again for as long as it's remembered or recorded.

It goes without saying that it takes an incredible amount of time and effort to write a story, especially a good one, but the same can (and should) be true for the act of retelling as well. However, there is something to be said about films that go above and beyond the simple task of retelling what was told before. These storytellers take the time, not only to respect the source material but take it the extra step further by rewriting it and making it their own.

[Movie posters sourced from IMDB.com.]

Think of how West Side Story reinterpreted the plot of Romeo and Juliet by setting it in 1950s New York, or how Maleficent turned the Sleeping Beauty story on its head by telling it from the perspective of the supposed antagonist. Among these fantastic retellings, there is no better example in recent filmography than the 2021 film, Belle.

Popularized for the lengthy standing ovation it received at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival, Belle is a gorgeous film, and as you may have gathered from the title, it’s inspired by the classic French fairy tale Beauty and the Beast, more specifically, Disney’s 1991 animated interpretation.

[Concept art of Belle (2021), Sourced from Variety.com.]

Belle tells the story of Suzu, an ordinary high school girl, who rediscovers her passion for singing while becoming an internet celebrity under the alias of Belle in a virtual reality world. It’s in this world, this story within the story, that she encounters some of the characters reminiscent of those from the source material: a mysterious, misunderstood monster (The beast) who is hunted down by a chauvinistic antagonist claiming moral authority (Gaston). In this world, audiences might recognize similar scenes such as a cloaked Belle wandering into the Beast’s castle, The townsfolk rallying against the beast, and even an homage to the iconic ballroom dance scene.

[Shot from Belle (2021), Sourced from Gkids.com.]

On top of this tremendous amount of respect and attention to detail dedicated to harkening back to its predecessors, Belle doesn’t miss a beat when telling its own story. Among other things, Beauty and the Beast taught us not to judge a book by its cover, and Belle is much the same, but it also puts that lesson into the context of a modern world of social media and how people tend to use it to romanticize their lives. The film also goes to great lengths to show the effects of trauma, grief, and healing, something completely original to this film’s interpretation.

[Shot from Belle (2021), Sourced from Gkids.com.]

All of this was inspired by a 1991 animated film that was built from a fairy tale that was written all the way back in the 1750s, and even that was most likely sourced from some other amalgamation of stories. This all goes to show that retelling is a vital part of a story’s life cycle, and the best stories are told over and over ad nauseam.

As storytellers, let’s not shy away from the great stories that inspire us. We may aspire to rival them or even surpass them, but why not build upon them? We may not retell their stories exactly, but we shouldn’t be ashamed of drawing from them. As Sir Isaac Newton once said, “If I have seen further [than others], it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.”

[Shot from Belle (2021), Sourced from Gkids.com.]

Sure, some may say that every great story has already been written, but it’s our privilege, as storytellers, to tell them again.