March 2024 Recommended Reading and Viewing

[Coír Draoi Ceítien]

March is here, bringing Spring with it, and it feels great. It took me a bit of thinking, as I didn't want to immediately continue from last time (I'll save that for next time), but I found something for this month. With the reading, I don't actually know if I've read the originals per se, but I've gotten close enough to it to recommend them. As for the viewing, it's something similar to serve as an accompaniment.


Reading: The Complete Fairy Tales (2010) by Charles Perrault

Collected here are what may be the first fairy tales as we understand them today, written by an influential member of the Academie Francaise, though scholars still debate whether they were completely original or based on older variants from earlier sources. Classics such as "Little Red Riding Hood", "The Sleeping Beauty in the Wood", "Puss in Boots" and "Cinderella" mingle with less familiar works, all told with a moral attached to each one. For those interested in the development of the fairy tale and children's literature, this is a must-read.

Trade: https://www.amazon.com/Complete-Oxford-Classics-Hardback-Collection/dp/0199585806/
Kindle: https://www.amazon.com/Complete-Oxford-Classics-Hardback-Collection-ebook/dp/B005PUWU3A/



Viewing: Beauty and the Beast (Jean Cocteau, 1946)

The Disney film is so popular that viewers may be forgiven for overlooking an earlier version from France itself, now considered a high point in French cinema, directed by one of the most influential artists of the 20th century, (Cocteau was a poet, novelist, playwright and visual artist as well as a filmmaker). Told with the simplicity of a children's story mixed with surrealist imagery, the film is a postwar tour-de-force and remains one of Cocteau's best known works.


DVD: https://www.amazon.com/Beauty-Beast-Criterion-Collection-Marais/dp/B00007L4I6/
Blu-Ray: https://www.amazon.com/Beauty-Beast-Criterion-Collection-Blu-ray/dp/B004WPYO8I/
Amazon Video: https://www.amazon.com/Beauty-Beast-English-Subtitled/dp/B004CV8OGU/


Happy Spring, everyone!