''La Beauté du diable'' (literally "the beauty of the devil"; originally released in the UK and USA as ''Beauty and the Devil'') is a 1950 Franco-Italian

fantasy film Fantasy films are films that belong to the fantasy genre with fantastic themes, usually Magic (paranormal), magic, supernatural events, mythology, folklore, or exotic fantasy worlds. The Film genre, genre is considered a form of speculative fic ...

drama Drama is the specific Mode (literature), mode of fiction Mimesis, represented in performance: a Play (theatre), play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on Radio drama, radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a g ...

directed by

René Clair René Clair (; 11 November 1898 – 15 March 1981), born René-Lucien Chomette (), was a French filmmaker and writer. He first established his reputation in the 1920s as a director of silent films in which comedy was often mingled with fantasy. H ...

. A

tragicomedy Tragicomedy is a literary genre that blends aspects of both tragedy, tragic and comedy, comic forms. Most often seen in drama, dramatic literature, the term can describe either a tragic play which contains enough comic elements to lighten the ov ...

set in the early 19th century, it is about an ageing

alchemist Alchemy (from the Arabic word , ) is an ancient branch of natural philosophy, a philosophical and protoscientific tradition that was historically practised in China, India, the Muslim world, and Europe. In its Western form, alchemy is first ...

, Henri

Faust Faust ( , ) is the protagonist of a classic German folklore, German legend based on the historical Johann Georg Faust (). The erudite Faust is highly successful yet dissatisfied with his life, which leads him to make a deal with the Devil at a ...

, who is given the chance to be eternally young by the devil

Mephistopheles Mephistopheles ( , ), also known as Mephostophilis or Mephisto, is a demon featured in German folklore, originating as the chief devil in the Faust legend. He has since become a stock character appearing in Mephistopheles in the arts and popular ...

. It is loosely adapted from the classic early 19th-century verse play ''

'' by

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Johann Wolfgang (von) Goethe (28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832) was a German polymath who is widely regarded as the most influential writer in the German language. His work has had a wide-ranging influence on Western literature, literary, Polit ...

Cast

Michel Simon Michel Simon (; 9 April 1895 – 30 May 1975) was a Swiss actor of German origin active primarily in France. Gérard Philipe Gérard Philipe () (born Gérard Albert Philip, 4 December 1922 – 25 November 1959) was a prominent French actor who appeared in 32 films between 1944 and 1959. He came to prominence during the later period of the poetic realism movement o ...

as Young Henri Faust / Young-looking Mephistopheles *

Nicole Besnard Nicole Besnard (1928–2017) was a French stage and film actress.Pym p.80 She starred in several films during the 1950s before retiring. Selected filmography * '' The Sinners'' (1949) * ''Beauty and the Devil'' (1950) * ''They Were Five'' (1952) ...

as Marguerite, the gypsy girl *

Raymond Cordy Raymond Cordy (9 December 1898 – 23 April 1956) was a French film actor,Youngkin p.466 born Raymond Cordiaux. He appeared in over a hundred and thirty films during his career. Selected filmography * '' Little Lise'' (1930) - Un joueur de bill ...

as Antoine, the servant *

Simone Valère Simone Valère (2 August 1921 – 11 November 2010) was a French actress. She appeared in more than forty films from 1941 to 1993. Filmography External links * {{DEFAULTSORT:Valere, Simone 1923 births 2010 deaths Actresses from Pa ...

as La Princesse *

Carlo Ninchi Carlo Ninchi (31 May 1896 – 27 April 1974) was an Italian film actor. He appeared in more than 120 films between 1931 and 1963. Selected filmography * '' Before the Jury'' (1931) – Marcello Barra, il guardacaccia * '' Mother Earth'' ( ...

as Le Prince *

Gaston Modot Gaston Modot (31 December 1887 – 20 February 1970) was a French actor. For more than 50 years he performed for the cinema working with a number of great French directors. Biography Modot lived in Montmartre at the beginning of the 20th cen ...

as Gypsy *

Tullio Carminati Tullio Carminati (September 21, 1894 – February 26, 1971) was a Dalmatian Italian actor. He rose to fame in Italy and the United States initially as a silent film actor, starring in such films as '' The Duchess of Buffalo'' (1926), '' Th ...

as Diplomat *

Paolo Stoppa Paolo Stoppa (6 June 1906 – 1 May 1988) was an Italian actor. Biography Paolo Stoppa was born in Rome into a family of a ministerial official, Luigi Stoppa, and Adriana De Antonis. He began as a stage actor in 1927 in the theater in Rome ...

as Official

Release and reception

In 2013, the

Cohen Film Collection The Cohen Film Collection is a film archive currently held by Cohen Media Group. Containing several hundreds of rare and classic movies spanning from the silent film era to the present day, it was previously referred to as the Rohauer Library pri ...

released the ''Beauty and the Devil'' on

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for digital video disc or digital versatile disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any ki ...

and

Blu-ray Blu-ray (Blu-ray Disc or BD) is a digital optical disc data storage format designed to supersede the DVD format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released worldwide on June 20, 2006, capable of storing several hours of high-defin ...

. Besides the film, which was reconstructed (although with distorted audio during the title sequence), the discs offer a 2010 documentary on the film itself. Ian Jane of the ''

DVDTalk DVD Talk is a home video news and review website launched in 1999 by Geoffrey Kleinman. History Kleinman founded the site in January 1999 in Beaverton, Oregon. Besides news and reviews, it features information on hidden DVD features known as ...

'' said in his closing comments regarding the Blu-ray release: "''Beauty Of The Devil'' is slick, it's stylish and it's wonderfully shot meaning that not only is the creative way in which the story is told compelling and interesting but that it is as much a treat for the eyes as it is for the mind. The performances are good and Clair does some interesting things with his take on the story of Faust. This may be an atypical take on the classic tale, but it works incredibly well."

Awards

The film was nominated for Best Film at the 1951

BAFTA Awards The British Academy Film Awards, more commonly known as the BAFTAs or BAFTA Awards, is an annual film award show hosted by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) to honour the best Cinema of the United Kingdom, British and Worl ...

and won two awards at the

Italian National Syndicate of Film Journalists The (plural: ''Nastri d'Argento''; English: Silver Ribbon) is an Italian film award, held since 1946 by the ''Sindacato Nazionale Giornalisti Cinematografici Italiani'' (Italian National Union of Film Journalists). Awards are given annually in ...

with a Silver Ribbon Best Actor award going to

Michel Simon Michel Simon (; 9 April 1895 – 30 May 1975) was a Swiss actor of German origin active primarily in France. Léon Barsacq Léon Barsacq (18 October 1906 – 23 December 1969) was a Russian-born and naturalized French production designer, art director and set decorator. He was nominated for an Academy Award in the category Best Art Direction for the film '' The ...

References

External links

* 1950s romantic fantasy films 1950s fantasy drama films French black-and-white films Italian black-and-white films French fantasy drama films Films directed by René Clair Films scored by Roman Vlad 1950s French-language films Films based on the Faust legend Films set in the 19th century 1950 drama films 1950s French films 1950s Italian films {{1950s-Italy-film-stub