New York Film Festival 2023

[Chris Knipp]

BERTRAND BONELLO: THE BEAST/LA BÊTE (2023)


LÉA SEYDOUX AND GEORGE MCKAY IN LA BÊTE

A man (George McKay) and woman (Léa Seydoux) meet across three eras of time and three moods.

Mise-en-scène is class through all eras, the 2044 one, the 2014 one, and the 1910 Paris flood one. The turn of the century dress-up for McKay an Seydoux is a delight to the eye. There is a disaster in a 1910 doll factory that is quite dazzling - both spectacular and elegant and not like anything one has quite seen before. It is the mixture of eras and storylines (all, frankly, rather fragmentary; perhaps fortunately) that lead to a sense of slicing-and-dicing that ultimately is wearying, at least in the setting of a long day of press screenings. This will be a must-see and one to linger over cultishly for Bonello fans (of whom I am one), but may not win a lot of new converts.

Bonello achieves elegance wherever he ventures. All the scenes where Seydoux and McKay are in 1910 dress and have polite, tentative, Last Year at Marienbad exchanges, which dominate the early part of the film, when things haven't become too complicated, are at least eye candy, at best haunting, and, incidentally, would more obviously relate to Henry James, the author of the film's freely riffed-off book.

That theme presents a "beast" as a menacing future that haunts the protagonist, Gabrielle; and in their sci-fi dance toward and away from each other through time Louis (McKay) also is inhibited, desirous and yet holding himself back.

Apparently in 2044 post-apocalyptic Paris - the setting and era that's hardest to follow, Gabrielle (Seydoux) consents to surgery to remove her feelings - and make her more like a robot - and while she's under for this, has flashbacks (that we see) to other lives and experiences.

Because I'm all-in for McKay, the place where I most differ with Jordan Mintzer's critical assessment in his Hollywood Reporter review is in finding McKay's new identity in the last quarter of the film as Louis-something in LA the most "overblown" aspect of all. It creates a quiet menace that's much needed by this last segment of the film, and the depiction of an incel man, whlle blatant, is carried off by McKay with a spot-on impersonation of a messed-up young American. The contrast between McKay's 1910 Paris identity and this one is shocking and thought-provoking. It seems to be what the film is "about," along with Babrielly-Seydoux's identity fluidity-uncertainty. McKay is just right in giving off an air of repressed, intense sexuality. He has a strange, ageless face. He also can look like a boy, which plays well in his scenes as the incel, Louis. The film is built around McKay, and Seydoux's variablity as an actress. She blends seamlessly in each of the three eras.

At the same time I do agree with Mintzer that in depicting a weirdly warped America Bonello doesn't have the knack David Lynch had. Though structurally Bonello is doing something different from Lynch, presumably, one still at moments feels that this is Lynchan territory with not quite the edge.

Still, what a gorgeous, classy piece of weird, disturbing eye-candy. I want to watch it again when I can, to understand it better and wallow in its memorable images. As Minter says, "Bonello doesn’t want us to simply watch The Beast, but to pay attention to it." It's a film that calls for rewatching and rethinking, and it will be better seen without the annoying loud giddy laughter of some audience members at the press screening.

Léa's costar was to have been Gaspard Ulliel, but he died following a ski accident in January 2022.

The Beast/La Bête, 146 mins., debuted at Venice, also showing at Toronto and at the NYFF, as part of which it was screened for this review Sept. 25, 2023. Showing Oct. 8 and 9 at the NYFF, with Bonello for a Q&A. Also to show at London BFI. French theatrical release Feb. 28, 2024. Metacritic rating: ̶8̶3̶%̶.̶ 80%.. AlloCiné press rating 3.7 (73%).