La Belle Et La Bete: Film review - Cocteau's Forties fantasy is still a thing of real beauty

(PG) Jean Cocteau, 95 mins, Starring: Jean Marais, Josette Day, Mila Parély, Nane Germon, Marcel André

Cocteau's 1946 version of the famous fairytale (re-released in a 4K restoration as part of the British Film Institute's ongoing Gothic season) is a tour de force that belies the straitened circumstances in which it was made. Shooting not long after the German occupation ended, Cocteau and his collaborators conjure up visual effects that are as startling and as magical as anything achieved in huge-budget Hollywood films.

By comparison with Cocteau's surrealistic earlier film The Blood of a Poet (1930), this may seem a relatively straightforward adaptation (notwithstanding the self-reflexive opening in which we see the director himself writing the credits on a blackboard.) However, the very fact that it is a fantasy allows the film-makers to demonstrate their artistry in the most extravagant fashion.

There is an obvious undercurrent of eroticism here, too. This is acknowledged finally when Beauty (Josette Day) tells the Beast (Jean Marais) "I like being afraid... with you." As played by Marais, the Beast comes across as a dapper, renaissance version of a werewolf in a Universal horror film. One moment, he'll be on his haunches drinking water from Beauty's hands, but the next he'll be growling out some surprisingly chivalrous dialogue.

The costumes and some of the settings are ornate, but Cocteau is capable of suggesting luxury and splendour simply through the use of sheets and mirrors. Day is given her share of beautifully lit extreme close-ups. There's also a welcome strain of humour which stops the storytelling from seeming too portentous. This comes both from the scheming of Beauty's absurdly conceited sisters and from Marais' pantomime-style antics as the well-spoken Beast.