La bete

Language : French / English

Year of release : 2023

Run time : 2h26m

Genre : Sci Fi / Romance / Drama

Cast : Lea Seydoux, George MacKay

La bete or The Beast was written and directed by Bertrand Bonello. The movie is a French Canadian co-production loosely based on the 1903 Henry James novella "The beast in the jungle".

In 2044 the artificial intelligence rules, and took over most of the jobs in the world. It doesn't have a good opinion of people, as it thinks them incapable of making rational decisions because of their feelings.

Gabrielle, who supposedly has strong emotions, is asked by the AI to go through a process of purifying her DNA, meaning to get rid of her emotions so she could get better jobs.

This purification entails her reviewing her past lives, and she relives meeting Louis in 1910, in France. He approaches her by telling her they met years before, in Italy, when she told him what her biggest fear is. She doesn't remember him, but this leads to a friendship. It turns out she is still afraid to truly feel for something "obliterating" (I think was the word used) might happen, although she did marry a man who owns a doll making factory.

In the present, she meets past life Louis at the centre where she does the purifying, but he doesn't remember her. He does tell her he fears this purification as he doesn't want to lose the ability to feel.

The second life time she visits is in 2014 Los Angeles, when Gabrielle is a model and actress who is trying to get work. She meets Louis after an earthquake, and she invites him over, but being a 30 year old virgin, who complains about girls not liking him, he doesn't accept her invitation, as he's afraid it might end as bad as the other dates.

Although the premise of the movie sounded great to me, I hated the movie. It's very slow paced, and it feels to me nothing is happening. Although it's supposed to be about true love, you don't get to see much of that in the movie.

The characters are never together. The closest they get to being together, is in the first recollection, when they have a friendship that Gabrielle is afraid to turn to something else due to the doom feeling looming over her her whole existence.

In the second recollection Louis is a mad stalker, hating on girls, getting his vengeance on all the girls who ever rejected him by k1lling Gabrielle, the only one who wanted him!

There's no love, I didn't feel any love coming from the characters!

Not only the movie is a slow burn, but the ending is not satisfying! I felt I wasted my time (it's 2 hours and a half !), and it bored me so much, after only an hour !!!

Also, I don't know how reviewing your past love lives would make you feel less, I think it's the opposite, because you know more!

I think the beast is the AI.

The actors were good, George MacKay's French was good (he is a British actor who had to learn French for the part).

The visual effects were good.

The soundtrack was good.

The movie received positive reviews, and was nominated for a few awards, winning some. It grossed almost 824 500 Dollars at the box office, against a budget of 7.5 million Euros.

The movie was released at the 2023 Venice International Film Festival, and officially released in France and Canada, in February 2024, respectively April 2024.

The project was in the works since 2021, with Gaspard Ulliel and Lea Seydoux as the leads, but Ulliel's death in January 2021 from a skiing accident, made the director look for an English speaking actor.

Rating : Could have been a contender !