A Thing of Beauty

Cocteau's masterpiece to screen at his namesake cinema

(DisCina)

By Enrique Limón

Back in the summer of 2013 when the revamped Jean Cocteau Cinema was to open its doors, SFR wrote that new owner George RR Martin wanted to kick off the theater's second coming with Cocteau's classic La Belle et la Bête. Due to licensing and scheduling, it wasn't in the cards, and instead the one-screen lit up with Forbidden Planet—which GRRM's wife Parris refers to as the author's "most favorite movie of his entire life."

Apropos of Valentine's Day, the single-screen theater hosts an almost weeklong screening of the 1946 surrealist love story that kicks into high gear when Belle's father is sentenced to death for plucking a rose from the Beast's lush garden. Distraught, the Beauty offers to take her father's place. The story was first published in 1757 and has enchanted generations since.

"I didn't see it when I was very young," Martin tells SFR. "I think I saw Cocteau's Beauty and the Beast for the first time when I was working on the Beauty and the Beast television show. Ron Koslow, who created that show, was very much inspired by Cocteau."

Long before his A Game of Thrones-inspired series achieved HBO gold, Martin worked on the Ron Perlman and Linda Hamilton-led adaptation of the fairytale for three years.

"I'd been hired and I said, 'Well, I should see this Cocteau thing and see where this inspiration was coming from,' and it did have an enormous impact on me. It's a beautiful film," he continues.

The wait was well worth it, Martin advances, as the 93-minute film has since been remastered to reflect its original glory.

"It's gonna be a beautifully, new, restored film," he finalizes.

Jean Cocteau's Beauty and the Beast
6:40 pm Friday, Feb. 13. $10
Jean Cocteau Cinema
418 Montezuma Ave.,
466-5528

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