When the beautiful Belle volunteers to take her ruined father’s place as the prisoner of a mysterious Beast who lives in a castle on the other side of the forest, an unexpected romance blossoms between the reclusive monster and the innocent maiden. A defining influence on filmmakers as different as Ingmar Bergman and François Truffaut, this adaptation of the classic fairy tale by iconoclastic novelist, playwright, artist, and filmmaker Jean Cocteau is that rare film. (NR, 1946)