Directed by: Bertrand Bonello
Distributed by: Sideshow and Janus Films
Written by Taylor Baker
84/100
Bertrand Bonello’s latest “The Beast” reminds one of the works of Satoshi Kon, Wong Kar Wai, or Leos Carax. This adaptation of Henry James’ novella ‘The Beast in the Jungle’ is contemplative. It follows a woman in the not-too-distant future as she vies for employment in a world where artificial intelligence and robotics have made the majority of the workforce obsolete. She opts to undergo a procedure that will make her less emotional and less “human,” once complete she hopes it will have made her into the ideal candidate for a job in the technocracy of the 2040s where humans seemed to be governed by AI.
Like Kon’s “Millennium Actress,” Wai’s “2046,” and Carax’s “Holy Motors” Bonello’s “The Beast” sees Seydoux glide along different periods of time and genres of social entanglement. Her ancestry is depicted as visually identical to the Gabrielle (Léa Seydoux) we meet in the contemporary timeline. Within that framework Bonello is able to bring to life the stuffy salon parties of the early 20th century, the hollowness of performers acting on a green screen set in the 2010s, and the dread of humans needing to become more mechanical and less emotional to continue to survive in the future.
The film presents Gabrielle Monnier as the latest version of someone in her lineage compromising who she wants to be with what she has to become to stay alive. As we follow Gabrielle’s journey along her ancestry she keeps bumping into George Mackay’s Lewis Lewanski, and over the ages as both receive the procedure to make themselves less human they begin to fall in love with one another.
Bonello’s film is slow, it purposefully simmers, and as it does the cinematography masterfully utilizes repetition. His choice to use of dual language in dialogue scenes between his leads feels as fresh as Hamaguchi’s choice to do something similar with Chekhov’s ‘Uncle Vanya’ in “Drive My Car.” “The Beast” isn’t just smart, it’s deftly crafted and lingers long after the credits end.
“The Beast” Trailer
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