by Alex Billington
February 13, 2024
Source: YouTube
"I'm afraid of no longer feeling things…" Janus Films has revealed the full official US trailer for the indie French sci-fi romantic thriller The Beast, the latest unique creation from filmmaker Bertrand Bonello. This initially premiered at last year's Venice Film Festival in the fall, with additional festival stops at New York, London and Toronto as well. It's hard to properly describe or even try to explain this film, as it's a peculiar mix of ideas spanning multiple timelines. The plot is set partly in a near future in which A.I. is in control of everyone's lives and emotions are perceived as a threat. To get rid of them, Gabrielle must purify her DNA by going back into her past lives. There, she reunites with Louis, her great love. But she's overcome by fear, a premonition that catastrophe is on the way. The Beast stars French actor Léa Seydoux and British actor George MacKay playing multiple roles in different characters across time, connected mainly by love and other mysterious forces. Bonello adds this explanation: "My desire was to interweave the intimate and the spectacular, classicism and modernity, the known and the unknown, the visible and the invisible. To speak, perhaps, of the most heartbreaking of feelings, the fear of love." This film is for hardcore cinema nerds only.
Here's the official US trailers (+ poster) for Bertrand Bonello's The Beast, direct from Janus' YouTube:
Full intro: The year is 2044: artificial intelligence controls all facets of a stoic society as humans routinely “erase” their feelings. Hoping to eliminate pain caused by past-life romances, Gabrielle (Léa Seydoux) continually falls in love with different incarnations of Louis (George MacKay). Set first in Belle Époque-era Paris Louis is a British man who woos her away from a cold husband, then in early 21st Century Los Angeles, he is a disturbed American bent on delivering violent "retribution." Will the process allow her to fully connect with Louis in the present, or are these two doomed to repeat their previous fates? Visually audacious director Bertrand Bonello (Saint Laurent, Nocturama) fashions his most accomplished film to date: a sci-fi epic, inspired by Henry James turn-of-the-century novella, suffused with mounting dread and a haunting sense of mystery. Punctuated by a career-defining, three-role performance from Seydoux, The Beast poignantly conveys humanity’s struggle against dissociative identity and emotionless existence.
The Beast, also known as La Bête in French, is directed by the French indie filmmaker Bertrand Bonello, director of many feature films including Something Organic, The Pornographer, Tiresia, On War, House of Tolerance, Saint Laurent, Nocturama, Zombi Child, and Coma previously, along with many other shorts. The screenplay is written by Bertrand Bonello, Guillaume Bréaud, and Benjamin Charbit; based on the short story "The Beast in the Jungle" by Henry James. It's produced by Bertrand Bonello and Justin Taurand. This initially premiered at the 2023 Venice Film Festival last year playing in the Main Competition. Janus Films will debut Bonello's The Beast in select US theaters starting April 5th, 2024 coming soon. Who's curious?