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Movies / On DVD / Beauty and the Beast
Beauty and the Beast

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Beauty and the Beast (1946)

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Reviews Counted:42

Fresh:40

Rotten:2

Average Rating:8.6/10

Runtime: 1 hr 33 mins

Genre: Foreign Films

Synopsis: Visionary filmmaker and poet Jean Cocteau responded to the terrors and creative constraints of occupied France with this elaborately realized take on the classic fairy tale BEAUTY AND THE BEAST.... Visionary filmmaker and poet Jean Cocteau responded to the terrors and creative constraints of occupied France with this elaborately realized take on the classic fairy tale BEAUTY AND THE BEAST. Suggested by his longtime collaborator and muse, French actor Jean Marais, the cinematic version of the fable first penned by Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont became Cocteau's most celebrated film. Cocteau renders the story of a gentlehearted beast in love with a simple and beautiful girl in the style of the luminous paintings of Dutch master Vermeer. From the quaint and humorous scenes of Beauty's happy home to the ominous surreal spectacle of the Beast's enchanted estate, Cocteau transforms the simple tale of tragic love into a surreal vision of death, desire, and beauty. Marais is chilling as the lonely and tormented beast, projecting a wounded love for the glacial yet endearing Beauty (Josette Day), whose simple request for a rose from her father brings tragedy crashing down on her whole family. Cocteau expands upon the cinematic inventiveness first seen in his masterpiece BLOOD OF A POET with mirrors made of water, living statues, and candelabras fashioned from living arms, transforming a children's fable into a complex and radiant cinematic classic. [More]

Starring: Jean Marais, Josette Day, Marcel Andre, Mila Parely

Starring: Jean Marais, Josette Day, Marcel Andre, Mila Parely, Michel Auclair, Nane Germon

Director: Jean Cocteau

Director: Jean Cocteau
Screenwriter: Jean Cocteau
Story: Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont
Producer: André Paulvé

[See More Credits]

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Release:

Sep 9, 2008

[DVD Details]
 
 
  • Jean Cocteau reinvented the fairy tale for the cinema with this enchanting, exquisitely realized version of Mme. Leprince de Beaumont's fantasy romance. With all manner of unparalleled visual effects and photographic tricks, Cocteau makes the spellbinding tale of transformative love both ethereal and tangible, and his indelible images still haunt the cinema like no other.
  • Source: Image Entertainment Inc.
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    Reviews for Beauty and the Beast

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    1 - 20 (sorted by comments)
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    It is a credit to Cocteau's genius (and to that of his collaborators) that he has taken the unreal world of a fairy tale and made it as real as the world around us.

    Full Review Source: TV Guide's Movie Guide | comment Comment
    01/01/00
    TV Guide's Movie Guide

    The film is all surface, and undermines its own don't-trust-a-pretty-face and anti-greed themes at every turn.

    Full Review Source: Village Voice | comment Comment
    08/13/02
    Village Voice
    N/R

    Click to read the article

    Full Review Source: Time Out | comment Comment
    02/11/06
    Time Out

    No review available.

    comment Comment
    05/12/05
    Andy Klein
    Andy Klein
    Los Angeles CityBeat

    Cocteau’s poetic aesthetic...the matter-of-fact extravagance...an otherworldly ambience...[combine to] strike an uncomplicated chord within us, directly connected to the wondrous nightmares of childhood.

    Full Review Source: Metro Times (Detroit, MI) | comment Comment
    12/16/02
    Anita Schmaltz
    Anita Schmaltz
    Metro Times (Detroit, MI)
    N/R

    Click to read the article

    Full Review Source: New York Times | comment Comment
    05/20/03
    Bosley Crowther
    Bosley Crowther
    New York Times

    The first known cinematic telling of the classic story... [still] seems years ahead of its time.

    Full Review Source: Entertainment Today | comment Comment
    10/14/02
    Brent Simon
    Brent Simon
    Entertainment Today

    Jean Cocteau's frighteningly beautiful surrealist take on the classic story is a potent antidote if Disney's given you one swig too many of the sweet stuff.

    Full Review Source: Bryant Frazer's Deep Focus | comment Comment
    01/01/00
    Bryant Frazer
    Bryant Frazer
    Bryant Frazer's Deep Focus

    No review available.

    comment Comment
    08/22/03
    Carol Cling
    Carol Cling
    Las Vegas Review-Journal

    The restoration of this 1946 film is a beauty, but I'm just not sure this beast of a movie is worth the trouble.

    Full Review Source: TheMovieChicks.com | comment Comment
    11/15/02
    Cherryl Dawson and Leigh Ann Palone
    Cherryl Dawson and Leigh Ann Palone
    TheMovieChicks.com

    Lovely.

    comment Comment
    06/14/08
    Cole Smithey
    Cole Smithey
    ColeSmithey.com

    Littering his film with wonderfully evocative shots of steam rising off of the simmering Beast, Jean Cocteau accentuates his seething animal intensity.

    Full Review Source: Apollo Guide | comment Comment
    03/03/04
    Dan Jardine
    Dan Jardine
    Apollo Guide

    Elegant and mesmerizing.

    comment Comment
    07/25/03
    David N. Butterworth
    David N. Butterworth
    rec.arts.movies.reviews

    It sets the benchmark in elegance for such fantasy films.

    Full Review Source: Ozus' World Movie Reviews | comment Comment
    11/24/06
    Dennis Schwartz
    Dennis Schwartz
    Ozus' World Movie Reviews

    No review available.

    comment Comment
    07/17/05
    Emanuel Levy
    Emanuel Levy
    EmanuelLevy.Com

    The film is invaluable as a piece of history, but it hasn't stood the test of time.

    Full Review Source: Reno Gazette-Journal | comment Comment
    02/28/03
    Forrest Hartman
    Forrest Hartman
    Reno Gazette-Journal

    One of the greatest fairy tales ever made. Pure film magic in any language.

    comment Comment
    08/22/02
    Gerry Shamray
    Gerry Shamray
    Sun Newspapers of Cleveland

    A rich and vivid telling of the classic story under the elegant direction of Jean Cocteau.

    comment Comment
    07/11/03
    Greg Muskewitz
    Greg Muskewitz
    eFilmCritic.com

    A work of magic that makes the Broadway adaptation look like overproduced swill.

    Full Review Source: Compuserve | comment Comment
    07/29/02
    Harvey S. Karten
    Harvey S. Karten
    Compuserve

    No review available.

    comment Comment
    06/04/04
    Jake Euker
    Jake Euker
    F5 (Wichita, KS)
     
     
    1 - 20 (sorted by comments)
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