Beauty and the Beast | NW Film Center

France • 1946 • 96 mins.

A film of immense visual beauty and unparalleled imagination, Jean Cocteau’s Beauty and the Beast was the first of many adaptations of the 18th-century fairy tale, and a film that continued French cinema’s storied legacy in the years immediately following World War II. Josette Day stars as Belle, the trod-upon, earthy younger sister in a family full of primadonnas. Down on his luck one evening, Belle’s father stumbles upon an opulent castle, where he meets Beast (Jean Marais), a fabulously wealthy yet melancholic animal-man who longs for companionship. As Belle becomes embroiled in a tumultuous romance with Beast, her human beau Avenant stands in the shadows, unable to accept the situation—and the mysterious Diana’s Pavilion looms in the background, perhaps offering all the answers to the Beast’s true identity.

Genres: Romance, Fantasy

The Northwest Film Center recognizes and honors the Indigenous peoples of this region on whose ancestral lands the museum now stands. These include the Willamette Tumwater, Clackamas, Kathlemet, Molalla, Multnomah and Watlala Chinook Peoples and the Tualatin Kalapuya who today are part of the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde, and many other Native communities who made their homes along the Columbia River. We also want to recognize that Portland today is a community of many diverse Native peoples who continue to live and work here. We respectfully acknowledge and honor all Indigenous communities—past, present, future—and are grateful for their ongoing and vibrant presence.