"The Beast"

I headed to the Tower Theater on May 3rd to see "The Beast": a French/Canadian project. 

The film basically follows the same couple over three distinct periods: Belle Epoque France (basically Paris) in 1910, Los Angeles in 2014, and Paris in 2044. The stories are interesting, with several common themes: the presence of dolls, the presence of pools of water, and a spiritual adviser.

The Beast (French: La Bête) is a 2023 science fiction romantic drama film directed and written by Bertrand Bonello from a story he co-wrote with Guillaume Bréaud and Benjamin Charbit, and loosely based on Henry James's 1903 novella The Beast in the Jungle. It stars Léa Seydoux and George MacKay, with Guslagie Malanda and Dasha Nekrasova in supporting roles. 

It is a co-production between France and Canada. The film is produced by Les Films du Bélier and Bonello's My New Picture in collaboration with Arte France Cinéma, AMI Paris, and Xavier Dolan and Nancy Grant's Sons of Manual. The project was announced in 2021 and principal photography took place in Paris and Los Angeles between August and October 2022.

Léa Seydoux is a good actress, but I was wowed more by George MacKay. He has a monologue as an insecure, well-dressed American incel that is so over the top that people laughed. It was great!  Apparently he's British and learned French for the role.  Amazing!

The California scenes are both menacing and absurd. Just right, in my opinion.

I suspect the movie works better for French audiences.  The 2044 world features three nightclubs meant to evoke nostalgia for specific years: 1980, 1972, and 1963.  The 1980 club is familiar, but the music in the 1972 club must be what was popular in France in 1972, not the U.S., and so was unfamiliar.  The 1963 world might as well have been a different planet.  It's a demonstration how the world of pop music became internationalized towards the end of the 20th Century.

See the film if you can!