The versions of the fairy tale La belle et la bête written by Gabrielle-Suzanne de Villeneuve and Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont in the 18th century bear traces of an intermedial translation process going back to antiquity. At the same time, they themselves become the starting point of an intermedial publication and translation process: the editing history of the fairy tale in text, sound and image extends into the 21st century. Using the example of two film adaptations, this article examines the dense network of intermedial references that links the fairy tale versions together. The first is Jean Cocteau’s La belle et la bête from 1946, which reflects the intermedial translation processes in its introduction and in paratexts such as a diary on the filming. Beyond that, Cocteau’s film’s pictorial composition is essentially based on two artistic models – Dutch painting of the Golden Age and Gustave Doré’s illustrations of Charles Perrault’s fairy tales. The second example discussed in the article is the 2017 Disney adaptation Beauty and the Beast. It draws on Cocteau’s original and stages the film as an intermedial event. Furthermore, it can also be shown how the dubbed versions of the film refer to the respective fairy tale traditions of the target cultures.