Beauty and the Beast presented by Mary Cybulski

Long before the Beast started signing autographs in Orlando, Jean Cocteau crossed Xanadu with Dali to create one of the most magical of all films. Before the days of computer effects and modern creature makeup, these spectacular visions of enchantment, desire, and death, became timeless icons of cinematic wonder. Candelabras are being held by living human arms extending from the walls, statues are alive, gates and doors open themselves. Cocteau wanted to make a surrealist poem, a film that appeals through images rather than words, a story that takes the form of the familiar fable, but deals, as fairy tales do, with what we truly dread and desire.