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Licensor Information
Janus Films
Directed by: Jean Cocteau
Featuring: Jean Marais, Josette Day, Mila Parély, Nane Germon, Michel Auclair, Raoul Marco, Marcel André
Once upon a time, in a world of magic and wonder, the true love of a beautiful girl may finally dispel the torment of a feral but gentle-hearted beast. Beauty and the Beast (La Belle et la Bete) is a landmark feat of cinematic fantasy in which master filmmaker Jean Cocteau conjures spectacular visions of enchantment, desire, and death that have never been equaled. The Criterion Collection proudly presents the original film version of Mme. Leprince de Beaumont's fairy-tale masterpiece, in a restored, spectacular special edition.
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Release Information:
Technical Specifications
Format:
DVD
Disc:
DVD-9 (1 Disc)
Total: 1 Disc
Regions:
1 (DVD)
Aspect Ratio:
1.33:1
Audio Options:
French Dolby Digital Mono 1.0
Musical Score Dolby Digital Surround 5.1
Resolution:
480p/29.97
Subtitles:
English
Supplements
Types of Supplements Included: Alternate Score, Documentary, Interview, Audio Commentary, Gallery, Theatrical Trailer, Restoration Demonstration, Text, Insert
- Original opera written for the film by renowned composer Philip Glass, presented in Dolby Digital 5.1
- Screening at the Majestic, 1995 documentary featuring interviews with cast and crew
- Interview with cinematographer Henri Alekan
- Audio commentary featuring film historian Arthur Knight
- Audio commentary featuring writer/cultural historian Sir Christopher Frayling
- Rare behind-the-scenes and publicity stills
- Original 1945 trailer narrated by Jean Cocteau
- Film restoration demonstration
- 1995 restoration trailer
- A reprint of Mme. Leprince de Beaumont's original fable translated from the French
- Notes by Francis Steegmuller, from his landmark book Cocteau: A Biography
- A note about the film by Jean Cocteau
- Insert featuring essay on the film by Geoffrey O'Brien
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Film
Picture
Audio
Supplements
Artwork
Release Credits
Artwork: Eric Skillman
Producer: Susan Arosteguy
Release Notes on Restoration
Beauty and the Beast
In 1995, as part of the celebration of a hundred years of French cinema, the restoration of Beauty and the Beast was initiated by the Luxembourg's Centre national de l'audiovisual, in association with CLT-UFA International. The resotration began with the original nitrate negative, which had suffered typical age related deterioration. The negative was meticulously cleaned and many of its sprocket holes repaired so that it would roll evenly through the gate at 24 frames per second. Using a wetgate process, in which liquid runs over the emulsion, filling scratches and removing fine dust, the restorers made fine-grain positive elements that became the main source for the new restoration negative.
Beauty and the Beast is presented here in its original theatrical aspect ratio of 1.33:1. On widescreen televisions, black bars will appear on the left and right of the image to maintain the proper screen format. This high-definition digital transfer was created on a Spirit Datacine from the 35mm restoration duplicate negative. Further restoration was done to manually remove thousands of instances of dirt, debris, scratches, splices, warps, jitter, and flicker using MTI's DRS system and Pixel Farm's PFClean system, while Digital Vision's DVNR system was used for small dirt, grain, and noise reduction.
The monaural soundtrack was remastered at 24-bit from an optical soundtrack print. Clicks, thumps, hiss, and hum were manually removed using Pro Tools HD. Crackle was attenuated using AudioCube's integrated workstation.
Beauty and the Beast is presented here in its original theatrical aspect ratio of 1.33:1. On widescreen televisions, black bars will appear on the left and right of the image to maintain the proper screen format. This high-definition digital transfer was created on a Spirit Datacine from the 35mm restoration duplicate negative. Further restoration was done to manually remove thousands of instances of dirt, debris, scratches, splices, warps, jitter, and flicker using MTI's DRS system and Pixel Farm's PFClean system, while Digital Vision's DVNR system was used for small dirt, grain, and noise reduction.
The monaural soundtrack was remastered at 24-bit from an optical soundtrack print. Clicks, thumps, hiss, and hum were manually removed using Pro Tools HD. Crackle was attenuated using AudioCube's integrated workstation.