FIRST CRITICAL REVIEW: I,Beast - THE ILLUSTRATED BEAUTY AND THE BEAST (156 Pages – 400 Illustrations) By William Richert with River Sauts About the Book: A visual delight! A great and brand new read! I recently watched the Disney cartoon version of the fairy tale Beauty and the Beast on dvd, along with my young friend Kazia. The movie’s Broadway-musical-style show tunes are witty, the Beast is sufficiently ugly and endearing, and Beauty, God bless her, is a rare media heroine who actually reads books! Nonetheless, I found myself disturbed by the broad liberties the Disney Studio took in changing classic elements of the tale. William Richert has gone to the source of the tale. The story of Beauty and the Beast as we know it was written by Madame Le Prince de Beaumont (a French woman living in London), published in 1756 in a magazine for "young misses." De Beaumont's tale was based on a 362-page romance published sixteen years earlier by a Parisian artistocrat, Gabrielle Susan Barbot de Gallan de Villeneuve. i BEAST, William Richert’s new, illustrated book stays faithful to the original material by de Villeneuve. Unlike de Beaumont's and Disney’s simplified abridgement of her story, de Villeneuve's original (written for adult readers in French literary salons) was complex, baroque, and discursive, thickened by many characters and meandering subplots. De Beaumont and Disney also altered Villeneuve's story in a significant way: in their versions, the Beast becomes a sympathetic, even attractive, character before his transformation -- while in the Villeneuve version, as in i BEAST, Beauty requires assurance again and again from a Good Fairy and magical dreams that loving the Beast is a good idea. iBeast (156 Pages – 400 Illustrations) By William Richert with River Sauts About the Book: A visual delight! I recently watched the Disney cartoon version of the fairy tale Beauty and the Beast on dvd, along with my young friend Kazia. The movie’s Broadway-musical-style show tunes are witty, the Beast is sufficiently ugly and endearing, and Beauty, God bless her, is a rare media heroine who actually reads books! Kazia and I both enjoyed it, even if we were laughing at different jokes. Nonetheless, I found myself disturbed by the broad liberties the Disney Studio took in changing classic elements of the tale. The story of Beauty and the Beast as we know it was written by Madame Le Prince de Beaumont (a French woman living in London), published in 1756 in a magazine for "young misses." De Beaumont's tale was based on a 362-page romance published sixteen years earlier by a Parisian artistocrat, Gabrielle Susan Barbot de Gallan de Villeneuve. i BEAST, William Richert’s new, illustrated book stays faithful to the original material by de Villeneuve. Unlike de Beaumont's and Disney’s simplified abridgement of her story, de Villeneuve's original (written for adult readers in French literary salons) was complex, baroque, and discursive, thickened by many characters and meandering subplots. De Beaumont and Disney also altered Villeneuve's story in a significant way: in their versions, the Beast becomes a sympathetic, even attractive, character before his transformation -- while in the Villeneuve version, as in i BEAST, Beauty requires assurance again and again from a Good Fairy and magical dreams that loving the Beast is a good idea. William Richert's amazing Illustrated version, and his Graphic Novel incarnation, both drawn brilliantly by the incredible artist River Sauts whose work hangs in the Vatican, shall henceforth become the sine qua non of Beauty/Beast literature, illustrated or filmed or written.

I, Beast - The Illustrated Beauty and the Beast: A true Pagan Fairy Tale

Comics & Graphic Novels

Richert, William

Graphic Novels

CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform

Author and Director William Richert tells the original tale of BEAUTY AND THE BEAST for the first time since 1740, when the story of how a Prince was changed into a Beast until somebody loved him for his soul, and not for his physical appearance.  The creation of the Beast as part of a fairy tale first came into being in Paris among the aristocrats of the time as a way to explain, perhaps, the relationships of younger women to older men.  In time the story grew and changed into the present Walt Disney incarnation.  But the roots of the story are steeped in pagan literature, and the truth of the transformation from handsome prince, to beast, and back again, has lessons for all time and place.  The illustrations are by the great American illustrator River Sauts, whose works hang in the Vatican, among other spots.  William Richert's film and book credits include AREN'T YOU EVEN GONNA KISS ME GOODBYE?, which he wrote and directed as a film starring River Phoenix and introducing Matthew Perry and Johnny Galecki.  Also Mr. Richert wrote and directed WINTER KILLS starring Jeff Bridges and John Huston, which the New York Times called "One of the Great all-time American Films -- ranks with Citizen Kane."

My Beauty My Beast - The Graphic Beauty and The Beast

Hardly performed on any stage since the 1920's, the original story of Porgy and Bess has languished on bookshelves while the great "folk opera" by George and Ira Gerswhin has rightfully taken its place among the all time American Operas. But left behind is the work of Dorothy and DuBose Heyward and their Negro collaborators -- actors and poets of the time. Also forgotten is the Gullah language, with its richness and the spiritual songs of the period, post-emancipation, "Reconstruction" -- a time when black people were finding their own voices after hundreds of years in slavery and oppression. PORGY was a smash hit on Broadway, running from 1927-28, and the play and musical provided some of the great actors the depth and range to give great performances, with the attraction and love between a beauty with a flaw and a cripple without the use of his legs. Dorothy Heyward spent the latter part of her life making sure that her husband and collaborator DuBose Heyward would not be overshadowed by the fame of Ira Gershwin or the songs of the great George Gerswhin. These pages show how much remains in modern times of what trouble and poverty and injustice was like back then -- as well as how far we've come in many areas of understanding and acceptance . This screenplay may provide the opportunity to witness daily life -- including a monstrous hurricane -- in a Charleston tenement back almost a century ago -- with characters who make you laugh or cry or scared - and the luminous addition of one of the world's best loved love stories,; a kind of fairy tale among the hurt and wounded, without a "happy" ending, but glorious with a beauty all its own.

Porgy and Bess 1927: THE SCREENPLAY

Literature & Fiction

Dramas & Plays

Exploitation Nation #14: Remembering William Richert

Biographies & Memoirs

Watt, Mike

Arts & Literature

Happy Cloud Publishing

William Richert knew River as an actor, business partner, confident and friend.This volume of "Collected Richert Papers-The River Phoenix Letters," contains 29 years of letters William wrote about River Phoenix; the quality of his character in life and the truth surrounding the circumstances of River's death. "There are people among us who can take our breath away with their character and style, with qualities of goodness and generosity that make us blink to be sure we are seeing correctly; they are rare, and so beautiful. River Phoenix was such a person." --William Richert(River Phoenix eulogy written by William Richert for Farewell, Godspeed edited by Cyrus M. Copeland)

COLLECTED RICHERT PAPERS: THE RIVER PHOENIX LETTERS

Business & Money

Industries

Happy Cloud Media, LLC

What does a 17 year old teenager do when faced with debts resulting from a close brush with paternity, a father who is notoriously tight with a dollar, and a girl named Lisa who just might warm up if he can raise the plane fare to follow her to Hawaii?The answer to these questions hurl a rather desperate 17 year old Jimmy Reardon, from the wrong side of the tracks in a posh Chicago suburb, on a 24 hour odessy as he tries to borrow from his "Saturday Habit" girl and his true girlfriend Lisa along with attempting a bit of a con on his employer and his employer's mother -- while along the way managing to seduce his father's mistress and get a beating from the school Hero -- a picaresque anti-hero is Jimmy Reardon, who finds himself in his search for escape. The book received rave reviews upon publication, with prose favorably compared to James Joyce and Kingsley Amis among others, and its author William Richert was feted by Enest Hemingway's wife as an heir apparent to the famous author. Mr. Richert never wrote another novel, and became a screenwriter, director and actor.AREN'T YOU EVEN GONNA KISS ME GOODBYE?, a Kirkus Library Review top choice in 1966, was made into a film by William Richert in the 80's starring River Phoenix and a superb cast topped by Ann Magnuson, Meredith Salenger, Louanne, Matthew Perry, Ione Skye and Jason Court. "As sweet as a dry Manhattan with twice the kick," wrote Shiela Benson in the LA Times.

Jimmy Reardon - Aren't You Even Gonna Kiss Me Goodbye?

Genre Fiction

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