Amoeba Music

Jean Cocteau’s sublime adaptation of Mme. Leprince de Beaumont’s fairy-tale 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 (La Belle et la Bête) have become timeless icons of cinematic wonder.

• High-definition digital transfer from restored film elements, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition
• Philip Glass’s opera La Belle et la Bête, as an alternate soundtrack, presented in 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio on the Blu-ray edition
• Two commentaries: one by film historian Arthur Knight and one by writer and cultural historian Sir Christopher Frayling
• Screening at the Majestic, a 1995 documentary featuring interviews with cast and crew
• Interview with cinematographer Henri Alekan
• Rare behind-the-scenes photos and publicity stills
• Film restoration demonstration
• Original trailer, directed and narrated by Jean Cocteau, and the 1995 restoration trailer
• New and improved English subtitle translation
• PLUS: An essay by film critic Geoffrey O’Brien and, for the Blu-ray edition, a 1947 piece on the film by Cocteau, excerpts from Francis Steegmuller’s 1970 Cocteau: A Biography, and an introduction to Glass’s opera by the composer