Jean Cocteau’s artistic vision, the 1946 film La Belle et la Bete, is a surreal, dream-like experience. Modern viewers may have a hard time getting past its occasional hokiness, and the fact that it is a French movie and in black and white. Despite these factors, it’s definitely still worth renting. The beast’s make-up alone is amazing to behold, considering this movie was made over 50 years ago. The spare sets of the beast’s castle, full of billowing drapes and dark shadows flow past like an eerie nightmare, in contrast to the sunny, bucolic scenes of Beauty’s home. Cocteau changed several aspects of the original story, but the original fairy tale is still recognizable despite these changes.
Jean Cocteau: La Belle et le Bete A skimpy site, but has a few good stills from the movie.
Movie Reviews for La Belle et le Bete A list of online reviews of the movie.
RottenTomatoes.com Reviews More reviews.
Guardian.co.uk Review A brief article discussing the film.
IMDB Page Contains cast and crew information, and interesting trivia.
Beauty and the Beast Informative and insightful article.
Someone has uploaded the movie onto youtube, in 9 separate parts. This is just one of the sections, and it gives you a good example of the Beast’s makeup, as well as the overall creepy atmosphere of the movie.
