Beauty and the Beast (in French La Belle et la Bête) is a French film, made in 1946, based on the fairy tale "Beauty and the Beast". The film was directed by Jean Cocteau, and starred his gay lover Jean Marais as the Beast and Josette Day as Beauty.

The score was by Georges Auric.

The film is notable for its surreal quality and its ability to use existing movie technology to effectively evoke a feeling of magic and enchantment.

In 1995 composer Philip Glass composed an opera meant as an alternative "soundtrack" to the movie, and some DVDs offer the ability to view the movie while listening to either version.

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