One of two fairytales he shot simultaneously (the other being The Ninth Heart), Juraj Herz’s adaptation surely remains the darkest, wintriest, most fetid filmic interpretation of Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve’s venerable fairytale.

Headily steeped in Gothic atmospherics, Herz’s Beauty Julie (Zdena Studenková) is pitted against a most unconventional Beast (celebrated ballet dancer Vlastimil Harapes) whose tormented mien is less than leonine and instead inspired, one might surmise, by the surrealism of Georges Franju’s Judex and Max Ernst’s alter ego, Loplop.

CaSFFA is proud to screen a 35mm print of Beauty and the Beast, courtesy of the National Film Archive in Prague, in partnership with the Melbourne Cinémathèque. Admission will be via Cinémathèque membership.