5/5 Daughter Loves This Film
  by A. M. Herrera (Fresno, CA)
I bought this as a Christmas present for my daughter. She loves French and wanted this movie badly. She has watched it several times and seems to love it.

5/5 GREAT!!!
  by Nik (Brooklyn, N.Y. USA)
I purchased this not too long ago. I have the movie and adore it, so when I saw this book I was extremely excited. I was not let down. For all Filmmakers, for all aspiring Filmmakers, I recommend this book. It is Jean Cocteau's diary, or shall I say Director's Commentary, of the making of this film. If filmmakers think they have it hard making a good movie today because of the price, please read this book. It is about true dedication, true passion and true love for making movies, telling stories and bringing fairytales to life. After all, isn't bringing a movie to life every filmmakers fairytale? This book can teach you more than any film class can ever. Get this book and recommend it to everyone. Give it as a present to the aspiring filmmaker in your life. And after you're done reading it, let it soak in and never forget it (I won't). It is that GREAT!!!

5/5 Belle et la Bête
  by A. Guillet
Absolutely fasinating. So many of my French teacher colleagues show this movie. They would find this "making of" so interesting. It is not a record of how he created the special effects, though he does discuss a few (the dvd shows many more), but rather all the trials the entire crew endured to create this seemingly effortless masterpiece.

5/5 Illuminating book
  by C. Graf (Lakewood, OH USA)
The book provides insights into the making of Cocteau's classic film. The incredible film obviously stands alone, but knowledge of the period and the various aspects and difficulties in making it adds to one's appreciation.

5/5 Suffering for his Art
  by Richard Patocchi (Stockton, CA United States)
Some have found Cocteau's litany of illnesses that he and others suffered while filming "Beauty and the Beast" tedious and skipped over them as seemingly irrelevant. Unfortunately, those who do so may miss the entire point of Cocteau's masochistic esthetic, namely, the necessity for the artist to suffer and triumph over all adversity for the sake of his art. That suffering is part and parcel of his art, suffering is art, just as "Beauty and the Beast" suffered during the filming and triumphed as a lasting work of art. Cocteau's suffering at the time mirrored the enormous technical difficulties encountered while making the film. The entire surreal struggle of Cocteau and of others involved in the film is wonderfully captured in his journal and any serious student of either Cocteau or the film will profit by reading it.