Beauty and the Beast (1946 film) Beauty and the Beast (1946 film) Beauty and the Beast ( - also the UK title) 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. The plot of Cocteau's film revolves around Belle's father who is sentenced to death for picking a rose from Beast's garden. Belle offers to go back to the Beast in her
Beauty and the Beast by an angry mob sent by her father; seeing this, Beauty weeps over the Beast, saying that she loves him. Suddenly, when her tears strike him, the Beast is transformed into the handsome prince from Beauty's dreams. The Prince informs her that long ago a fairy turned him into a hideous beast for his selfishness and that only by finding true love, despite his ugliness, could the curse be broken. He and Beauty are married and they live happily ever after together. Villeneuve's original tale includes several elements that Beaumont's omits. Chiefly, the backstory of both Beauty and the Beast