La Belle Et La Bete [1946] [DVD]

La Belle et La Bete is one of the all-time great movie fantasies, and one of the most gorgeous pictures ever made. It was the first feature film by French director Jean Cocteau, a writer, poet and painter with ties to the surrealists. (In fact, his first film, The Blood of a Poet, was delayed after the scandal caused by L'Age D'Or, made by his fellow surrealists Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dali.) The haunting, surreal visuals (candelabra made of human hands, for example) and a sensitive performance by Jean Marais as the Beast imbue the film with an indelible, mythical power. --Jim Emerson, Amazon.com

The DVD features a commentary by writer and cultural historian Professor Sir Christopher Frayling, a documentary, Screening at the Majestic, in which, 50 years on, Jean Marais, Mila Parely, Henri Alekan and others recall the experience of making the film, a picture gallery, and biographies. The fim has been digitally remastered from a new, restored print. Black and White, 90 minutes
French language with English Subtitles
Ratio: 1.33:1
Total Running Time: 118 Minutes

Cocteau addresses his version of Mme Leprince de Beaumont's eighteenth century fairy tale to 'what remains of the child in all of us' and proceeds to take us into a realm of enchantment where nothing - not even the candelabra or the decorative carvings in the Beast's castle - is quite what it seems, where ugliness masks integrity and handsome faces conceal treachery.

Josette Day is luminous yet feisty as Beauty, and Jean Marais gives one of his best performances as the Beast, at once brutal and gentle, rapacious and vulnerable, shamed and repelled by his own bloodlust. Cinematography, lighting, costume and set designs combine to make La Belle et la bete a thrilling piece of cinema.