Beauty and the Beast
Giants, fairies, magicians, ghosts, dragons, and monsters of all kinds… Here’s what your Cinémathèque has in store this summer! Since Méliès, filmmakers have embraced the fanstastic potential of cinema, creating infinite phantasmagorias and extraordinary spectacles where the unreal becomes real. Step into a world of fantasy and boundless imagination: whatever your generation, the monsters and wonders that once filled your childhood dreams are back this summer 2025!
Winner of the Louis Delluc Prize in 1946
Preserved in our collections
Cocteau's film, based on the version of the famous tale published by Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont in 1756, skillfully creates a dreamlike atmosphere that draws viewers into the Beast's castle, a magical world where objects come to life. Cocteau's poetic sensibility, the sets designed by painter and set designer Christian Bérard, along with Lucien Carré and René Moulaert, and the cinematography of the great Henri Alekan are at the heart of this classic of fantasy cinema.
Jean Cocteau
Jean Cocteau was a French poet, novelist, designer, visual artist, playwright, and filmmaker. He was one of the foremost avant-garde artists of the 20th century and had a significant influence on the surrealist and Dadaist movement, among others. Elected to the Académie française in 1955, he rubbed shoulders with many of the key artistic figures of his era. An impresario of his time and trendsetter, Cocteau was also described as a genius by countless artists and friends. Though his body of work encompassed many different media, Cocteau insisted on calling himself a poet, classifying the great variety of his works – poems, novels, plays, essays, drawings, films – as poetry.
