Evento

Beauty and the Beast @ Robert Classic French Film Festival

Jean Cocteau's sublime adaptation of Mme. Leprince de Beaumont's fairytale masterpiece -- in which the pure love of a beautiful girl melts the heart of a feral but gentle beast -- is a landmark of motion-picture fantasy, with unforgettably romantic performances by Jean Marais and Josette Day. The spectacular visions of enchantment, desire, and death in "Beauty and the Beast" have become timeless icons of cinematic wonder.

New Times critic Jean Oppenheimer enthuses: "So enchanting it takes your breath away, Jean Cocteau's 1946 live-action version of the famous fairytale remains one of the most magical films ever made.... The exquisite costumes and sets were by Christian Bérard, Georges Auric contributed the score and cinematographer Henri Alekan was the wizard on camera. His use of trick photography and hand-crafted special effects puts all of today's digitally generated, effects-laden movies to shame." Britain's the Observer asserts that "Beauty and the Beast" "does not look so much imported from the 1940s as blown in from another world. Cocteau's film is antic and playful, but there is real pain (and genuine eroticism) behind its flamboyant façade. 'La belle et la bête' is full of wonder and mystery. It's cinema's ultimate love story, dressed up as a monster.

With an introduction and post-film discussion by Andrew Wyatt, film critic for St. Louis Magazine's Look/Listen arts-and-entertainment blog and the Gateway Cinephile film blog.