Director: Bertrand Bonello
Screenplay: Bertrand Bonello
Starring: Léa Seydoux and George McKay
Country: France, Canada
Running Time: 145 min
Year: 2024
Bertrand Bonello’s a figure I wasn’t all too familiar with before my viewing of The Beast. I knew that his work had been associated with the notorious New French Extremity movement in the past, and a friend of mine rated his work fairly highly. When the opportunity to cover Bonello’s latest feature The Beast came up, I jumped at the chance to check the film out.
Summarising The Beast is no easy feat and part of me wishes I checked out some of Bonello’s earlier works first as I found it a relatively challenging watch as an outsider. Taking loose inspiration from the classic novella The Beast in the Jungle by Henry James, the film follows Gabrielle (Léa Seydoux) in a world controlled by AI who see emotions and feelings as a negative component of everyday life, so she tries to purify her DNA.
In a few ways, it reminded me of aspects of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, albeit less Kaufman-esque and more unique to what I’m assuming is Bonello’s style. Over the course of the behemoth two and a half hour runtime, we’re transported through three different eras. 1910, 2014 and 2044. Each era is portrayed in its own unique way, and primarily follows the relationship of Gabrielle and Louis (George McKay), a figure that carries over through each period.
The Beast offers shades of films we’ve seen before, the previously mentioned Eternal Sunshine, as well as a clear love for the work of David Lynch (Mulholland Drive and Lost Highway absolutely come to mind here, with a sprinkling of Twin Peaks for good measure), incorporating the aesthetics of period pieces, AI-driven futures and the contemporary social media driven hellscape we currently live in (that’s what it felt the film was going for, at least). There’s even moments that are influenced by real life tragedies such as the Elliot Rodger case, with some sequences feeling word-for-word copies of his manifestos, which I found fascinating.
It’s the type of film that won’t be for everybody, and I’m not quite sure it was entirely for me, but I really admired what Bonello was attempting to do. The two and a half hour runtime definitely overstays its welcome and part of me feels like there’s a great 115 minute film in here, but for those who find themselves a tad more emotionally invested in the first half of the film, I can see this working a lot better for them. I found the film fascinating at points and always admired the luscious visuals, solid performances (particularly from Seydoux) and experimental nature of the third act, but never found myself emotionally connected to the majority of what was going on.
For fans of experimental science-fiction, The Beast is a challenging, decade spanning epic that will win over fans of Bonello but it’s probably not the best starting point for those unfamiliar with his work. Take it from someone who was in that boat before their first viewing. It’s still an accomplished work that I can see most audiences finding something interesting out of, even if they don’t come away head over heels with the end result.
Film:
The Beast releases in UK cinemas on May 31st via Vertigo Releasing.