La Belle et la Bête

La Belle et la Bête

(1946, directed by Jean Cocteau)

- inducted 2019 –

“Fangs and bristly fur obscure the handsome face of Jean Marais, who plays both blowhard suitor Avenant and the title monster in Jean Cocteau's Beauty and the Beast. He menaces Josette Day, who plays Belle, from either end of its pastoral romance. She's in the thrall of patriarchy within both mortal and mystical realms.

“The Beast wears glittering fineries, shot by Henri Alékan in inky blacks and luminous whites. His castle is a dreamland of surrealist effects work. Disembodied hands grip candles in its hallways; reversed footage and slow motion render bodies uncanny. The decor, like its master, is achingly vulnerable. Little else in film fantasy is as seductive as Cocteau's sui generis fairy tale.” ~ Alice Stoehr

Principal cast: Jean Marais, Josette Day, Mila Parely, Nane Germon, Michel Auclair, Raoul Marco, Marcel Andre
Screenplay by Jean Cocteau (screenplay and dialogue), Jean Cocteau and Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont (story)
Executive producer: Andre Paulvé
Director of photography: Henri Alekan
Production design by Christian Berard, Lucien Carre
Set decoration by Lucien Carre, Rene Moulaert
Costume design by Antonio Castillo, Marcel Escoffier
Film editing by Claude Iberia
Original music by Georges Auric
Makeup by Hagop Arakelian
Sound by Jacques Carrere, Jacques Lebreton, assisted by P. Gaborian, H. Girbal
Technical advisor: Rene Clement

France
Duration: 96 minutes
Languages: French
Filmed in black and white
Sound mix: Mono
Aspect ratio: 1.37:1

Produced by DisCina
Released in USA by Lopert Pictures Corporation
Premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in September 1946
USA release date: 23 December 1947

Awards and honors:
- Selected as one of Roger Ebert’s “Great Movies,” 26 December 1999

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