Beauty and the Beast (1946 film)
Beauty and the Beast is a 1946 French romantic fantasy film directed by French poet and filmmaker Jean Cocteau. Starring Josette Day as Belle and Jean Marais as the Beast, it is an adaptation of the 1757 story Beauty and the Beast, written by Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont and published as part of a fairy tale anthology.
Film poster
Page of the original scenario on display in the Jean Cocteau House in Milly-la-Foret, France
Jean Maurice Eugène Clément Cocteau was a French poet, playwright, novelist, designer, film director, visual artist and critic. He was one of the foremost artists of the surrealist, avant-garde, and Dadaist movements and an influential figure in early 20th century art. The National Observer suggested that, "of the artistic generation whose daring gave birth to Twentieth Century Art, Cocteau came closest to being a Renaissance man.".
Cocteau in 1923
Amedeo Modigliani, Jean Cocteau, 1916, Henry and Rose Pearlman Collection, on long-term loan to the Princeton University Art Museum
Le combattant by Jean Cocteau, c. 1940, ink and ink wash on paper, 26.5 x 21 cm. Private collection
Portrait of Jean Cocteau by Federico de Madrazo y Ochoa, c. 1910–1912