The Beast

Léa Seydoux

Bertrand Bonello's La Bête is made up of three variations of Henry James' novella "The Beast in the Jungle", a formal approach that dovetails nicely with Bonello's former career as a session pianist. The James tale features a male protagonist, John Marcher, who ruins his own life and that of his lady love through a lifelong fear that catastrophe is lurking for him like a beast of prey. The protagonist of Bonello's film, in three iterations, is named Gabrielle and is played by screen icon Léa Seydoux. Her would be suitor is named Louis, who is played by George MacKay (1917, Captain Fantastic) in the three time periods covered by the film. In each strain of the film, the ending is tragic.

The three time frames captured by the film allow for variations in story, production design, and locale, but the theme remains pretty much the same. One part is set in the Belle Époque Paris of 1910. In this section, Gabrielle is a married pianist living a complacent existence hinted at by her husband's business, manufacturing baby dolls. Gabrielle is tempted by English expatriate Louis who is privy to her secret fear. This story line is juxtaposed with one set in Paris in 2044. An unexplained plague has decimated the populace. Those who survive wander the streets with protective masks. AI and robotics dominate the landscape. Gabrielle is undergoing a sinister seeming "purification" treatment recommended by her AI medical pooh-bahs. A very different kind of doll is available for humans, Gabrielle's robot is embodied beautifully by Guslagie Malanda (Saint Omer) . Gabrielle meets Louis at a bar that morphs into different periods. She pines for him, but has difficulty tracking him down.

At La Bête's midpoint, Bonello wraps up the 1910 story and sends this version of Gabrielle and Louis to a watery grave. He introduces a story line set in 2014 Los Angeles. There, Gabrielle is a struggling model/actress who is house sitting for a wealthy client. Louis is a menacing incel type who ends up stalking Gabrielle. One of the few off notes of the film for me was MacKay in the 2014 section. He nails his character's cynicism, but seems overly hale for an incel. Otherwise, he is quite good trading je t'aimes in French to the 1910 Gabrielle or apparating in the future in a Pierre Cardin Beatle suit. Even in a dud like Laurent, Bonello has been masterful in exploiting his costume and production designers, coiffeuse, and sound mixers. The technical aspects of La Bête are all top notch. The floral displays and Ms. Seydoux's hairstyles are sublime. The outfits for her also contribute to the film's mise-en-scene in intriguing ways. When Gabrielle invites Louis to her husband's doll factory for a tryst, her red ensemble incinerates the screen with repressed longing before the muted blue and white set literally explodes in flames due to the Paris flood of 1910.

The only other brickbat I could hurl at the film concerns a scene where a forbidding pigeon attacks Gabrielle. The ability to film action scenes does not fit with the Gallic temperament. Otherwise, this is Bonello's best film thus far and one of the best of the past year. Bonello, not surprisingly, excels in his use of music. Patsy Cline's "You Belong to Me" is used for ironic effect as Gabrielle is stalked and Roy Orbison's "Evergreen" is a beautifully appropriate hymn to eternal love. The film, ultimately, belongs to Seydoux. She is onscreen for nearly all of this 145 minute film and handles the subtle modification of the various Gabrielles like the master technician she is. The actor of her generation? Peut-etre.