Released Date:
1947-12-23
Languages:
French
Countries:
France
Runtime:
93 min
Rated:
NOT RATED
IMDB Ratings:
(17762 Reviews)
Jean Cocteau (dialogue)
Jean Cocteau (screenplay)
Jean Cocteau (story)
Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont (story)
Adèlaède, Belle, Fèlicie and Ludovic are young adult siblings who once lived in grandeur until their father's merchant ships were lost at sea. The family is now near ruin, but Adèlaède and Fèlicie nonetheless still squander away the family money on themselves and keeping beautiful, whereas Belle slaves around the house, doting on her father. Ludovic detests his two spoiled sisters, but is protective of Belle, especially with his friend Avenant, a handsome scoundrel who wants to marry Belle. Crossing the forest one dark and stormy evening, the father gets lost and takes refuge in a fantastical castle. Upon leaving, he steals a blossom off a rose bush, which Belle requested. The castle's resident, an angry beast, sentences him to one of two options for the theft of the rose: his own death, or that of one of his daughters. As she feels she is the cause of her father's predicament (despite her sisters asking for far more lavish gifts), Belle sacrifices herself to the beast. Upon arriving at the castle, Belle finds that the beast, whose grotesqueness she cannot deny, does not want to kill her, but wants to marry her and lavish her with riches. He does not force her, but he will ask her every night to marry him, these times the only ones when he will appear to her. She vows never to say yes. As Belle resigns herself to her mortal fate and looks deeper into the beast - whose grotesque exterior masks a kind but tortured soul - will her thoughts change? Meanwhile, Belle's family, who learn of her situation, have their own thoughts of what to do, some working toward what they believe is Belle's best welfare, and others working toward their own benefit.
Released Date:
1948-12-18
Languages:
French
Countries:
France
Runtime:
93 min
IMDB Ratings:
6.9 (302 Reviews)
Director:
Jean CocteauGenres:
DramaPolitical intrigue and psychological drama run parallel. The queen is in seclusion, veiling her face for the ten years since her husband's assassination, longing to join him in death. Stanislas, a poet whose pen name is Azrael, is a suicidal anarchist, his imagination haunted into hate by longing for this queen who's drawn apart. He enters her private quarters intent on killing her then himself, but they fall in love, in part because he looks like the king. Stanislas wants her to regain political power by appearing to the public, and she tries to convince him to find hope and escape. All the while, the queen's enemies plot to keep the lovers together but to thwart their plans.
Released Date:
1950-11-29
Languages:
French
Countries:
France
Runtime:
95 min
Rated:
UNRATED
IMDB Ratings:
8.1 (6817 Reviews)
Director:
Jean CocteauOrphee is a poet who becomes obsessed with Death (the Princess). They fall in love. Orphee's wife, Eurydice, is killed by the Princess' henchmen and Orphee goes after her into the Underworld. Although they have become dangerously entangled, the Princess sends Orphee back out of the Underworld, to carry on his life with Eurydice.
Released Date:
1954-01-14
Languages:
French
Countries:
Italy, France
Runtime:
183 min
IMDB Ratings:
7.3 (434 Reviews)
Director:
Robert VernayAlexandre Dumas père (novel)
Georges Neveux (adaptation)
Robert Vernay (adaptation)
Edmond Dantes is falsely accused by those jealous of his good fortune, and is sentenced to spend the rest of his life in the notorious island prison, Chateau d'If. While imprisoned, he meets the Abbe Faria, a fellow prisoner whom everyone believes to be mad. The Abbe tells Edmond of a fantastic treasure hidden away on a tiny island, that only he knows the location of. After many years in prison, the old Abbe dies, and Edmond escapes disguised as the dead body. Now free, Edmond must find the treasure the Abbe told him of, so he can use the new-found wealth to exact revenge on those who have wronged him.
Released Date:
1961-05-28
Languages:
Italian
Countries:
Italy, France
Runtime:
97 min
Rated:
NOT RATED
IMDB Ratings:
7.8 (4564 Reviews)
Director:
Luchino ViscontiFyodor Dostoevsky (novel)
Suso Cecchi D'Amico (story)
Luchino Visconti (story)
A love triangle, the past invades the present. Mario, a shy man new in Livorno, chats up a crying woman on a bridge. She's Natalia, waiting for a lover gone for a year who promised to return. For three nights, Mario accompanies Natalia, assists her, distracts her, dances with her. He falls in love with her. Can he pull Natalia into his arms, away from the past and from love for a man who will probably never return?
Languages:
French
Countries:
France, Italy
Runtime:
105 min
IMDB Ratings:
(690 Reviews)
Director:
Andrè HunebellePierre Foucaud
Paul Fèval (novel)
Jean Halain
Andrè Hunebelle
Released Date:
1970-12-20
Languages:
French
Countries:
France
Runtime:
90 min
Rated:
NOT RATED
IMDB Ratings:
(2535 Reviews)
Director:
Jacques DemyCharles Perrault (fairy tale)
Jacques Demy
The education of a princess wrapped in a love story. A king and queen live happily until her sudden death. The king decides to marry his lovely daughter. She's willing, but the Lily Fairy serves as a social conscience, intent on thwarting incest. She instructs the princess to request a series of dresses impossible to make; however, the king's tailor succeeds. So the fairy plots the princess's escape, wearing the skin of the king's prize donkey. She's spirited away to be a scullery maid dressed in the noisome skin. A wandering prince sees her in the woods and is smitten. Can love find its course, and does the princess learn a lesson of life's hardships?
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