I am a huge Léa Seydoux fan so I may be a little biased. This is a slow burn film at 2hrs 26min. This is not a Hollywood popcorn movie. You really need to focus and pay attention for the whole movie. Loaded with symbolism throughout, it will reward you if you remain diligent in viewing it, and maybe watching it again.
For those who hated it I'd like to pose the question do you understand the actual fear of falling in love? The fear of being in love? Do you really understand these fears and anxieties? If you can't then you really won't understand the film. Can you understand living with no emotions and feelings? The scene with the woman strangling the cat is a very chilling scene.
That invisible beast of anxiety can be one of the most crippling things in life. It can hold your life for so long, it's a terrible thing. In reality it doesn't exist, because it's only in our minds. This is something the film was trying to portray.
Léa Seydoux's performance is tremendous. I really wasn't that impressed with the casting of George MacKay. Seydoux really commanded the film and thankfully so.
The Beast
2023 [FRENCH]
Drama / Romance / Sci-Fi / Thriller
Plot summary
In the near future where emotions have become a threat, Gabrielle finally decides to purify her DNA in a machine that will immerse her in her past lives and rid her of any strong feelings. She then meets Louis and feels a powerful connection, as if she had known him forever.
Uploaded by: FREEMAN
June 17, 2024 at 09:21 PM
Director
Top cast
Tech specs
720p.BLU 1080p.BLU 1080p.BLU.x265Movie Reviews
A great movie, but definitely not for everyone
The Beast
Though it's really way too long, I did rather enjoy the developing chemistry here between Léa Seydoux ("Gabrielle") and George MacKay's "Louis". The story isn't really structured, it's all largely dictated from her consciousness lounging in the bath of Guinness no longer needed by "Baron Harkkonen" where she is having her DNA cleansed. This is ostensibly to make her life happier and more fulfilled, to take the rough edges off disappointment and pain - and generally to turn her into a rather soporific drone. The thing is, whilst plugged in and gently soaking we discover that her brain isn't co-operating with the process and that she is having very lifelike fantasies - historical, contemporary and futuristic with the handsome and enigmatic "Louis". The story in itself isn't really up to very much. It's an episodic jaunt through what is/was/might be their lives - together and apart. What does work well is the ambiguity. The sense that artificial intelligence, either working on it's own or at the behest of humanity, can rearrange our thoughts and our memories. It can create as convincingly as it can delete comprehensively - and all because there is a sense that emotions are unpredictable, unreliable and therefore a threat to the stability of a new "natural order". The dialogue can meander into the realms of psycho-babble now and again which does detract from the subtle but clear thrust of the narrative, but it is actually quite a scary prognosis of what might become fact if we are not careful to protect what is real and important.