The Beast: Brainy French Sci-Fi Romance Juggles Themes - Part Period Piece, Part Future Shock
By Karen Gordon
Rating: B+
There is no actual beast in Bertrand Bonello’s brainy sci-fi, romance/drama The Beast (La Béte), at least not one we can easily see. No one is on the hunt for a monster here.
Still, there is a beast of sorts that Bonello is pointing to in three different times in history. He leaves the business of identifying what it is to us. And given the complex way the story unfolds, and the mysteries it spins, it might take some thought to figure it out. Worthwhile, I think.
The film shifts through three eras, 1910, 2014 and 2044, with the latter being the anchor for the story.
Future tech helps Gabrielle (Léa Seydoux) relive past lives in The Beast.
In 2044, it has been determined that human emotions are problematic for the good of the world. In an AI environment, people are able to tone down their emotions through a process called purification
Léa Seydoux is Gabrielle Monnier, who wants a better job. As calm and relaxed as she seems, she is deemed too emotional by the AI (voiced by Canadian actor/director Xavier Dolan), that quite gently points out the dangers that have come with human emotions.
And we can see that there is intense emotion in her. She’s fairly relaxed, but the conversation brings out anxiety and fear in her that she can’t quite hold back. Where does her anxiety come from? The AI suggests that she reconsider purification, which she’s previously rejected. Purification will take her to the past lives most connected with these emotions, which will help her process them, and cleanse them from her DNA so she can live in the present free of that baggage. This isn’t something she wants to do, but she agrees.
Gabrielle visits two past lives, one in 1910, the Belle Epoch era in Paris, where she is a concert pianist married to a lovely man, who she feels is a bit dull. And another in Los Angeles in 2014, where she’s an aspiring model/actress earning a living as a house sitter, while she waits for her break. In both of her lifetimes she encounters a man named Louis Lewansky, played by George MacKay (1917). In each life, they are drawn to each other.
In the first lifetime, he is a refined handsome suitor who pursues her in spite of the fact that she’s married. In the second, Louis is an ‘incel,’ a character based on a real life person who committed a number of murders. Louis and Gabrielle also meet up in their present, 2044. In each lifetime, she is unaware of their past relationships. There is just a connection that draws her to them.
Bonnello cuts back and forth between the three timelines, and the three stories. He’s also given each a distinct visual style. The scenes in Paris in 1910, which are shot in 35mm, feels like a period drama. The Los Angeles sequences, are shot in a modern style, of course, and 2044, even more so.
The juxtaposition makes 2014 in particular feels slightly jarring. This seems to be by design, to create a slightly off-center feeling.
As well, in the more modern time periods. Bonnello has a slightly surreal feel, with smatterings of what seem like small nods to filmmakers David Lynch and David Cronenberg, who like to play in the space between sci-fi, surrealism and the philosophical.
That sense of surrealism isn’t dominant. It’s that there is just enough to keep us off guard, and remind us where we are in her psyche. But it is more pronounced as the film moves on, with characters and symbols repeating in the various time frames.
For instance, Gabrielle is always an artist, She consults a psychic (Marta Hoskins) in both 1910, introduced to her by Louis, and again in 2014, when she finds her in a pop up box on her computer, both times issuing the same caution, in the same words. Dolls are another repeating object that show up in all three timelines in different ways. In 2044, Guslagie Malanda (Saint Omer) is Poupée Kelly, a life sized very human like doll that is meant to support Gabrielle as she goes through the experience of her past lives.
What isn’t surreal are the emotions that the film evokes. Gabrielle has a sense of dread and anxiety through all her lifetimes. Something that isn’t always overt, but becomes more observable as the film goes on, and more palpable for the viewer. The film also has moments of sensuality and eroticism.
And he’s cast it beautifully, Seydoux is quietly compelling, and really holds the center of the film. There’s a lovely chemistry between her and Mackay.
The film is long, some might argue too long for where it’s going and what it’s saying. That’s not because it isn’t saying something deep and meaningful. Bonnello wants us to take our time. He’s given it a certain pace that weaves you in if you’re willing to go with it. And things to contemplate if you do.
The Beast. Directed by Bertrand Bonello, Starring Léa Seydoux, George MacKay, Guslagie Malanda. In theatres in Toronto and Vancouver on April 19.