Amazon.com

This is definitely not the Disney version. While it remains faithful to the plot of the classic fairy tale by Leprince de Beaumont, Jean Cocteau's 1946 French romantic fantasy is the product of a sophisticated, mature sensibility in its tones and textures and, above all, in its surprising emotional power. With sparkling black-and-white imagery that, for once, is actually dreamlike rather than cute or kitschy, and with a Beast (Jean Marais) who is almost as glamorous with his silky blonde facial hair as he is clean shaven, the movie casts a seductive spell. It might actually be a little too rich and unsettling for kids. Even the costumes and the draperies are entrancingly ornate. Viewers intoxicated by this enveloping vision should consider moving on to Cocteau's even more aggressively other-worldly 1949 masterpiece Orpheus, in which Marais plays the doomed poet of ancient Greek legend, updated to a Parisian "punk" milieu of motorcycles and black leather. --David Chute ... Read more

Reviews (54)

Thrilling.....
At the beginning of "La Belle et la Bete" the wonderful film based on Marie Leprince de Beaumont's book of the same title, the director, Jean Cocteau asks the viewer to become as little children and engage in the willing suspension of disbelief. Fortunately, I believe in mystical and magical things, so I found Cocteau's instruction easy to follow and was rewarded with thrills of excitement.

Criterion has performed it's usaual great service, restoring a masterpiece. The technical aspects--remastering of the 1946 black and white film appears to me to be very nearly perfect. But more importantly, "La Belle et la Bete" is truly a work of art. A documentary included with the DVD explains how Cocteau, in spite of wartime shortages, was able to create his fantasy using the paintings of Vermeer and the etchings of Gustave Dore as a point of inspiration. Many of the most spectacular scenes are animated Gothic wood block prints! In an age of dazzling special effects, it is wonderful to know that creative geniuses have existed and once upon a time movie-making was based on artistic genius, not just technological wizardry.

Beauty and the Beast is my favorite fairy tale. In this version, Beauty is a convincingly good daughter and the beast is a convincingly bloody beast. Mornings after his nighly prowls little dead animals can be found in the courtyard. (He is unlike the cowardly lion in The Wizard of Oz). However, by the time the Beast is dying and Beauty rushes to his side, I am have come to care for him--if not love him. Jean Marais and Josette Day are very convincing.

Cocteau's "La Belle et la Bete" is closer to the original European tale than many other dramatizations. The purpose of these "fairy" tales was to impart a distilled bit of wisdom from one generation to another. "La Belle et la Bete" teaches an eternal truth--one does not love someone because of their appearance. True love is unconditional. If it is not unconditional, it is not love. As my mother used to say, "You should not judge a book by it's cover" -- although many of us do.

Cocteau's sensual version of the timeless fairy tale
Jean Cocteau's elegant vision in "La Belle et la Bete" is an absolute treat. Marie Leprince de Beaumont's dark fairy tale is turned into a film of erotic obsession. With its inventive and stylized images, this sensual film is not really for the kids. But some day they will come to appreciate Cocteau's film as much as they love the Disney version. Josette Day is Beauty, while Jean Marais plays not only the Beast, but Avenant and the Prince as well. However, the costumes, make-up and sets are what you will remember long after you have seen this 1946 film for the first time. One of the most beautiful black and white films ever made, with lush cimenatography by Henri Alekan. Do not wait until your kids are old enough to watch this one before you see it for yourself.

GREAT STUFF
THIS IS A GREAT DVD AND YOU CAN GET IT BRAND NEW CRITERION ON OTHER WEBSITES FOR LIKE $30.00, SHOP AROUND!!!!
I LOVE MY COPY.

Magical
It's amazing how Cocteau manages to make so much magic better than any computer generated effects. Simple things like glitter in horses tail, a platform on wheels for Beauty's glide down hall, reverse film(he also used in Orpheus)
It reminds me of the magic of Japanese Kabuki theater, where spotlights are candles on long wooden sticks and the oceon is scarves waving about, so much more magical than modern
technology.
I also find Ray Harryhaussen special effects magical.(Jason and the Argonauts, the Seventh voyage of Sinbad)
I also recommend The blood of a poet.
I don't think Cocteau deserved the put down by the surrealists as just a rich boy. I think he was a true artist.( Radiguet thought so.)

RAVISHING
Visually stunning, baroque, surrealistic fantasy/fairy tale, directed by masterful french artist, poet, Jean Cocteau, starring his longtime lover and protegé, legendary film actor Jean Marais, and Josette Day as "Belle", both perfect in their roles.

This is a sumptuous and very lyric film, a real one-of-a-kind experience, a masterpiece, and for sure, the very best version of the story. The Art Direction, the sets, the costumes, are all p-e-r-f-e-c-t....and the beast's make-up (mask) is great!!

This is one of the top examples of classic french film. Not to be missed. ... Read more

Amazon.com

"A realistic documentary of unreal situations" reads the introductory card of Jean Cocteau's debut film, which recalls the work of the silent surrealists (notably Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dalí'sUn Chien Andalou and L'Âge d'Or). Cocteau uses dream imagery to explore poetry, artistic creation, memory, death, and rebirth in four separate fantasy sequences. In the first scene, an artist confronts his creations whenthey take on a life of their own. In the second, he dives through a mirror (a primitive but startling effect Cocteau refines for Orpheus) and into a skewed hall where every door reveals a fantastic dream scene. The third sequence finds a gang of boys turning a snowball fight into a cruel war, and in the last an audience gathers to witness a dead boy's resurrection amidst a strange card game. These descriptions do little to communicate the poetry of each segment, which rely on creative imagery to create meaning not in stories but in symbols and metaphors. Cocteau'srealization is often stiff and stilted, the work of a visual artist transformingstill images into an medium that moves through time, but it's never less than beautiful and evocative. Cocteau returned to many of the same themes in Orpheus and The Testament of Orpheus. --Sean Axmaker ... Read more

Reviews (3)

hauntingly beautiful, richly chaotic imagery--first rate
i may dislike cocteau's literature, but i'm a fanatic when it comes to his work in film. "blood of a poet" is such a gem that it almost makes up for the instinctual dislike and boredom i feel when reading his poetry and essays. from start to finish this masterpiece will fascinate and hypnotize the lover of surrealist art, and also lovers of film as a whole. the image i most love from this movie is the armless greek statue with a superimposed mouth on it's face. it is, of course, useless to try to interpret intellectually and it doesn't have a 'meaning' rationally, (at least to the viewer), but don't dismiss it as nonsense for this reason. revilers of surrealism don't seem to understand that art is the beauty of the irrational, NOT, as the classicists believe, an expression of excellence or perfection through order. the appeal of this movie lies in it's appeal to the dionysian, primal side of our aesthetic organ. sheer genius on the part of cocteau the like of which we may never be fortunate enough to see again in this age of multi million dollar special effects-corporate (...) festivals.

A TRUE GENIUS
This movie is so awesome.It is about an artist and his relationship with his creations although what I came away with was more about the true essence of life than of art.Not readily understood but you will most likely find a meaning that applies to you.I particularly liked the walking through the mirrors and climbing on the walls.Very trippy with such innovative use of illusion.Made me question reality as I know it.

Poor quality edition
The particular edition I have seen (Timeless Video) is unwatchable. Apparently they recorded it from a television broadcast. After the first 23 minutes of this 55 minute feature, the top half of the screen is occupied by VCR data.

The movie itself is Cocteau's first effort, and the half I was able to see in this edition is a bit primitive, though one already sees visual themes used to great effect in Orpheus. ... Read more

Reviews (3)

hauntingly beautiful, richly chaotic imagery--first rate
i may dislike cocteau's literature, but i'm a fanatic when it comes to his work in film. "blood of a poet" is such a gem that it almost makes up for the instinctual dislike and boredom i feel when reading his poetry and essays. from start to finish this masterpiece will fascinate and hypnotize the lover of surrealist art, and also lovers of film as a whole. the image i most love from this movie is the armless greek statue with a superimposed mouth on it's face. it is, of course, useless to try to interpret intellectually and it doesn't have a 'meaning' rationally, (at least to the viewer), but don't dismiss it as nonsense for this reason. revilers of surrealism don't seem to understand that art is the beauty of the irrational, NOT, as the classicists believe, an expression of excellence or perfection through order. the appeal of this movie lies in it's appeal to the dionysian, primal side of our aesthetic organ. sheer genius on the part of cocteau the like of which we may never be fortunate enough to see again in this age of multi million dollar special effects-corporate (...) festivals.

A TRUE GENIUS
This movie is so awesome.It is about an artist and his relationship with his creations although what I came away with was more about the true essence of life than of art.Not readily understood but you will most likely find a meaning that applies to you.I particularly liked the walking through the mirrors and climbing on the walls.Very trippy with such innovative use of illusion.Made me question reality as I know it.

Poor quality edition
The particular edition I have seen (Timeless Video) is unwatchable. Apparently they recorded it from a television broadcast. After the first 23 minutes of this 55 minute feature, the top half of the screen is occupied by VCR data.

The movie itself is Cocteau's first effort, and the half I was able to see in this edition is a bit primitive, though one already sees visual themes used to great effect in Orpheus. ... Read more

Description

From Jean Cocteau -- one of the most revered and studied artists of the century -- comes this adaptation of the timeless Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice.The story revolves around the poet Orpheus (Jean Marais) who whiles away his time and talent in a ... Read more

Reviews (7)

Silence Flows Faster Backwards...
Whether you think it is deep or merely whimsical, it is awfully difficult to dislike a film which starts with Death's chauffeur calling the cops because the poets are brawling at the local cafe. Jean Cocteau's Orphee (Orpheus) is possibly the most uncharacterizable film ever: neither high art nor low, and neither a recasting of the classical Orphic myth nor a refutation of the original. If anything, Orphee is in fact all of these things simultaneously, and therein lies its art.
In the original Greek myth, Orphee loses his wife and is told that he may go to the underworld and retrieve her if he takes her by the hand and never looks back. He fails at this and she is gone to him and he returns to the world of the living without her. In an affiliated legend, Orphee dies a bloody death years later but is consequently reunited with his wife Eurydice who has been waiting for him.
The original myth suggests a belief in a romantic love that endures past death, but one that specifically rewards monogamous faithfullness. But with stipulations:the reward is in the next world, with no promises regarding thisworldly happiness. Moreover, the Greeks didn't allow for what happens to the bonds formed with subsequent spouses of widowed people.
This clearly troubled Cocteau, as does his Catholic "till death do us part", wherein people are expected to never divorce or seek new lovers, and to not have mates in the afterlife. Cocteau's version is similarly unpromising with respect to thiswordly happiness, but since Heurtibise(Death's chauffeur) and Euridice secretly wish to be together, as do the "Princess"(i.e., Death) and Orphee, maybe in their failure they get what they want.
So Cocteau holds out hope in his retelling, adapting the myth to suit his purposes while he simultaneously mocks the importance of myth-making. (At one point Orphee is asked by one of the underworld judges if he is a writer. He replies that he is a poet, adding that "a poet is a writer who writes but isn't a writer.)

With Heurtebise's help(and trick photography), Orphee goes back to the underworld to retrieve his wife. When he arrives he is made to testify in some sort of trial. He thinks he is on trial at first, but it is the princess, Death who is on trial, and it is through the process of the trial that he realizes that she loves him too. Later, he says to Death-

Orphee:"Who gives the orders?"
Death:"They come to us, as if in a dream...or like the beating of jungle drums."
Orphee:"I will go to him who gives the orders."
Death:"Some think he imagines us. Others that he sleeps, and we are his dreams..."

This exchange is the closest that Cocteau comes to offering a set of religious beliefs anywhere in Orphee. (Perhaps notably, one of the nonsense verses that come across the car radio earlier tells Orphee that the dreamer must listen to his dreams.)

Cocteau is more concerned with mood than with plot per se, and I suppose this may trouble some viewers. But for me, the dream-like, atmospheric quality of this film is more than suitable compensation. The car radio is right...

Sadness and Beauty
The Princess of Death loved one man - which is not allowed. Beautiful sounds enhance the beautiful scenes and lead you into the world consists of love, death, and life. The Princess of Death sacrificed herself for Orphee in the end. I cannot forget the final scene that she leaves.

Masterpiece by a Master
No one in film moved toward a transformation of the mythic impulse for modernity more profoundly than Jean Cocteau, and this is a perfect example of that art in practice. The film's influence, along with the rest of Cocteau's work ranges far and wide. One can see it in the work of David Lynch, in last year's Sixth Sense, etc. This is a film about a poet, but it's much more, it's poetry itself.

Great movie, awful print. Avoid! Get the more expensive one.
I have seen the 'cheap' version of this movie on VHS and it is terrible. A beautiful, mesmerizing film butchered by terrible sound, a faded print, and subtitles that go off the screen. The people responsible for this should be ashamed. This edition is truly a waste of money.

Surrealism at its best
Jean Cocteau described himself solely as a poet, and all of his work, as he said, was poetry. Orpheus is exactly like a poem--once you are affected by it, it never leaves. Cocteau masterfully combines surrealism with an engrossing retake on an ancient myth. The viewer is immediately drawn into this complex and fascinating, irrational, subconscious world. I highly recommend this film for all those interested in real movies. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Excessively mannered Cocteau romp.
Cocteau opens his film with an unneccessary disclaimer, insisting that it is a fictional story, not taken from history (a pun: both are 'histoire' in French); that each character is a creature of his imagination, not a figure from life. This disclaimer is unnecessary because none of Cocteau's neo-mythological fantasies could ever be confused with reality, the chocolate-box Ruritania of 'The Eagle Has Two Heads' in particular. A pseudo-historical pageant along the lines of Sacha Guitry, the film is based on a play, and although Cocteau opens the material out on occasion, he insists on its theatrical artifice, its ornate dialogue and precious acting style, the prominence of costume and decor, the inexorably interior scenes, the prevalence of pomp and ceremony. The conflicts in the play are even expressed theatrically, characters hurling 'poetic' monologues at one another, staging plots and counter-plots. One of the film's themes seems to be about the power of humanity and of love as it struggles to breathe in the stifling stage-play that is social life. I say 'seems', because Cocteau's method is too quicksilver bo be pinned down to a single 'message'.

The main characters in this Suchard charade are: the Queen, veiled and reclusive in the decade since her beloved husband was murdered on their wedding night, and who organises elaborate pantomimes to relive that night with his ghost; Stanislas, an assassin-poet and dead ringer for the King, who is run to ground by the Chief of Police and finds refuge in the Queen's Chambers; the Count de Foehm, the Chief, who resents the Queen's charisma and tries to stir up mob revolt against her; Mme. De Berg, his beautiful, blonde spy and attendent to the Queen.

Stanislas' delayed introduction, stunned, bloody and dressed in shorts as he stumbles through the Queen's window - after a long prologue intimating treachery against the Queen, the weight of malicious public opinion, the menacing spread of the police, and the suppressed desire of the Queen's admirer spying her elaborate ceremonies with her husband's picture - is probably the high point of the film. He is supposed to be an assassin and a great poet, but it is as if he has been mesmerised by the Queen, emasculated and faint as she talks rings around him, loading this creature emerging from the darkness with all sorts of metaphorical significance. His struggle against these abstracts, his attempt to assert the primacy of human individuality against a backdrop of conspiracy is considerably less interesting, although a camp frisson is retained throughout, with the strong Queen practising her marksmanship, swinging from beams or lurking Gulliver-style through model castles, while Stanislas staggers like an effete goon.

'Eagle' is not one of Cocteau's more endearing films. The cod-historical flimflam weighs down his magical lightness, and the lack of a single, structuring myth, as in 'Orphee' or 'La Belle Est Le Bete', means the film wanders all over the shop without ever getting anywhere. Favourite Cocteau motifs are introduced - windows, mirrors, stairs, corridors, paintings, statues, castles - and bring their own idiosyncratic resonances, but don't add up to much. There is an excess of dialogue, and most of it lacks sparkle. Fans of Melville, who would work with Cocteau on 'Les Enfants Terribles' a couple of years later, will note that the figure of an emasculated assassin caught in a circle or ritual and hari-kiri will reappear in his gangster classic, 'Le Samourai'. Others, noting that 'Eagle' the play was written in 1946, just after a war in which Cocteau's behaviour was much criticised, may choose to ignore his disclaimer, and look for as much historical significance as they can find. ... Read more

Reviews (3)

hauntingly beautiful, richly chaotic imagery--first rate
i may dislike cocteau's literature, but i'm a fanatic when it comes to his work in film. "blood of a poet" is such a gem that it almost makes up for the instinctual dislike and boredom i feel when reading his poetry and essays. from start to finish this masterpiece will fascinate and hypnotize the lover of surrealist art, and also lovers of film as a whole. the image i most love from this movie is the armless greek statue with a superimposed mouth on it's face. it is, of course, useless to try to interpret intellectually and it doesn't have a 'meaning' rationally, (at least to the viewer), but don't dismiss it as nonsense for this reason. revilers of surrealism don't seem to understand that art is the beauty of the irrational, NOT, as the classicists believe, an expression of excellence or perfection through order. the appeal of this movie lies in it's appeal to the dionysian, primal side of our aesthetic organ. sheer genius on the part of cocteau the like of which we may never be fortunate enough to see again in this age of multi million dollar special effects-corporate (...) festivals.

A TRUE GENIUS
This movie is so awesome.It is about an artist and his relationship with his creations although what I came away with was more about the true essence of life than of art.Not readily understood but you will most likely find a meaning that applies to you.I particularly liked the walking through the mirrors and climbing on the walls.Very trippy with such innovative use of illusion.Made me question reality as I know it.

Poor quality edition
The particular edition I have seen (Timeless Video) is unwatchable. Apparently they recorded it from a television broadcast. After the first 23 minutes of this 55 minute feature, the top half of the screen is occupied by VCR data.

The movie itself is Cocteau's first effort, and the half I was able to see in this edition is a bit primitive, though one already sees visual themes used to great effect in Orpheus. ... Read more