The Beast (La Bête)

AroView: An audacious, time-shifting psychodrama firmly in the tradition of Lynch and Cronenberg, characterized by striking visuals and the even more striking presence of Léa Seydoux.

Repeatedly hampered by the ‘beast’ of impending doom, she is drawn into a compulsive but fractured romance with incarnations of the same man (George Mackay) in Paris and L.A. across three time zones; 1910, 2014 and 2044. Inspired by a 1903 novella by Henry James, its unconventional pathways challenge the viewer over two-and-a-half hours to connect the dots between its characters, setting and pertinent themes.

“The Beast may not add up to a cogent or thoroughgoing critique of all the ideas it invokes, but it’s such a luxurious cinematic experience; it’s created with such elan and attack, and the musical score amplifies its throb of fear.” ~Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian

“The film’s true power stems from and speaks to our specifically present condition as people beset on all sides by the fears of our own imagination. By the trauma of something that already happened, or the terror of something that might.” ~David Ehrlich, IndieWire