#Director : Bertrand Bonello

[cristalconnors]

DIRECTOR

Shortlisted: Yuval Abraham, Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal & Rachel Szor, No Other Land / Alice Rohrwacher, La Chimera / Payal Kapadia, All We Imagine as Light / Victor Erice, Close Your Eyes / Pascal Plante, Red Rooms / Annie Baker, Janet Planet / Brady Corbet, The Brutalist

THE NOMINEES ARE:

BERTRAND BONELLO, THE BEAST + COMA

CATHERINE BREILLAT, LAST SUMMER

CORALIE FARGEAT, THE SUBSTANCE

RADU JUDE, DO NOT EXPECT TOO MUCH FROM THE END OF THE WORLD

PHẠM THIÊN ÂN, INSIDE THE YELLOW COCOON SHELL

MOHAMMAD RASOULOF, THE SEED OF THE SACRED FIG

AND THE CRISTAL GOES TO...

LUCA GUADAGNINO, CHALLENGERS

[cinemacentral666]

Titane (2021)

Movie #1,090 • Part of My JULIA DUCOURNAU Director Focus

This is the reason we are here.

I decided to watch all of Julia Ducournau's movies to date because of the "girl fucks a car" Palme d'Or winner, Titane (2021). What can I say? I'm a sucker for "girl fucks a car" Palme d'Or winners, I guess. That's what I could say. Write it on my tombstone.

This is clearly the best of the batch even though it's still flawed in many of the same ways Raw is. Like the insane vet school hazing rituals in that film, we find Ducournau's unique ability to construct scenes and scenarios that seem wholly implausible given the context. And I'm not even talking about the whole objectophilia/car-fucking thing or even any of the body horror! The insanely homoerotic fireman dance party/mosh pit comes to mind, for instance. It's not strange that a bunch of young firemen would get wild partying down with their brethren, but not that wild and not in that way. In a vacuum, this creates an uncanny valley effect that's good. But this is a movie that clearly doesn't want to exist in a vacuum. This is a movie which, painfully (in more ways than one!), wants you to distill its bonkers visual trappings into bigger, more universal ideas. And that's where the movie, again, fails. In part (again) because of a lack of character development with its protagonist, Alexia. It isn't that she's literally a serial killer. It's that she's a serial killer because her dad yelled at her one time to put her seatbelt on? And the ensuing accident after said event made her want to fuck cars and hate the human race in equal measures? OK. We both can't relate to and don't want to relate her, and furthermore: each point is moot because we're not given enough to begin with.

Thankfully, Vincent London as a depressed dad mourning the disappearance of his son offers a counterpoint and some empathy which completely salvage things on a structural level. The basis for his connecting with Alexia is hilariously far-fetched but that also feels intentional. Finally, there's a person in this world just as weird and screwed up as she is. This element was wholly missing from Raw and Titane is infinitely better for it.

And look, visually it's a ton of fun and completely demented. Who doesn't want to see a lady literally burst apart after the hyper-in utero transformation of being impregnated with a car baby? 10/10 no notes on that front.

In the end, truly trying to parse what this is actually about is a futile slog though. Color me daft, but every angle (it's a trans story! it's about motherhood! it's about stifling non-traditional sexualities!) left me rolling my eyes. Still, I'm happy a film as strange as this got made and I definitely want to see where Ducournau goes next.

SCORE: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

[onlyperioddramas]

Léa Seydoux as Gabrielle Monnier in trailer The Beast/La bête (2023, director Bertrand Bonello)

[neoyan]

Saint Laurent Director Bertrand Bonello

[tilbageidanmark]

MOVIES I WATCHED THIS WEEK #203:

6 IRANIAN FILMS (4 MORE BY JAFAR PANAHI):

🍿 "You're not a kid any more. You're nine years old!.."

I've seen about 30+ Iranian movies in the past few years, and many (by Panahi, Kiarostami, Farhadi, Forugh Farrokhzad, Mehrjui, Makhmalbaf, Etc.) were superb. But CHILDREN OF HEAVEN, my first film by Majid Majidi, is by far the best one of the lot. It was the first Iranian film to be nominated for an Academy Award, in 1998. It also had the saddest opening, two of the most convincing kid actors, and in general was one of the best films about children I know [together with Truffaut's 'L'Argent de poche' and Nils Malmros' 'Tree of knowledge'.]

Ali's family is so poor, that when he loses his little sister's only shoes, they don't dare tell their parents that, and restore to both using his one worn pair to go to school, one at a time. It's heartbreaking and absolutely marvelous. The trailer. 10/10.

🍿 My 6th feature by Jafar Panahi, was his 1995 debut film, THE WHITE BALLOON, with a screenplay by Abbas Kiarostami. 2 years before 'Children of heaven', it's very similar in topic, location, style. It too tells of a brother and sister of similar ages, who live in a similar poor neighborhood, and told in a similar kid-friendly feel. They even have a gold fish pond in their front yard, which becomes the focal point of the story. But the innocent adventures of the 7-year-old girl who tries to buy a gold fish was nearly too tense for me. Her heartbreaks and simple joys were pure and sad.

A girl, a gold fish and a snapshot of Iranian society explains how the sub-genre of Children Films enables filmmakers to deal with their theocratic society.

🍿 Panahi's THE ACCORDION (2010) is another sad story about two children, who panhandle in the streets of Tehran, playing the accordion and a tablas, trying to make some coins. Poverty, mistreatment (and abuse) of children are impossible for me to watch. A heartbreaking 9/10!

🍿 In WHERE ARE YOU, JAFAR PANAHI? he again clandestinely films himself and a friend in his car, talking about the state of cinema in Iran, as they drive to place flowers on Abbas Kiarostami’s grave.

(I think it was a 2016 initiative from from The Pompidou Center, which commissioned a bunch of directors to film similar personal essays, Tsai Ming-liang, João Pedro Rodrigues, Bertrand Bonello, Jean-Marie Straub, Etc.)

🍿 Because of Panahi's precarious political status under the repressive regime, he's been driven into filming secretive, no-budget short-form home movies on his cell phone. Like the guerrilla-style HIDDEN (2020) where he drives with his daughter and another female artist into a Kurdish village. There's a young woman there with a golden voice that the producer wants to use in a theater piece. Maybe Panahi can help convince her parents to let her do it? The mundane trip ends with a powerful shock. 8/10.

🍿 I was excited for FRIDAY MOSQUE, a 2014 experimental short by a young female Iranian, but it was nothing but a silent, black and white "meditation about spirituality". Abstract, flickering shapes of the exact type that French dadaists did 90 years earlier. 1/10. [*Female Director*]

🍿

The devastating RED, WHITE AND BLUE was nominated for this year's Best Short Oscar, but didn't win (And it's obvious why). A young waitress in Arkansas, a struggling single mom, is barely scraping enough money together so that she can drive out of state for an emergency abortion. The horror that is America today is impossible for me to watch. And I don't have it in me to follow up on it either. Thanks No Thanks, 'Hoots', for the recommendation. 9/10. [*Female Director*]

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2 MORE BY MEXICAN DIRECTOR LILA AVILÉS:

🍿 "Shall I tell you my wish?... I wish for daddy not to die."

TÓTEM (2023), only her second feature (after the mesmerizing 'The chambermaid', which like this one was universally-acclaimed and won a bunch of awards). An inquisitive 7 year old girl (Shown Above) is watching quietly as her bustling family is preparing a last birthday party for her dying father.

I don't have it in me to see more sad stories about the indignities girls have to go through: Thank Dog, it's a natural death here, which must have been expected. And the artistic way Avilés tells the story makes it a delight, nearly a devastating joy to see: It is deeply emotional and cerebral at the same time, it's subtle, it goes in tangents without disclosing too much or explaining anything (A truckload of paintings is hauled away, a psychic lady is conducting a shamanic ritual, the girl releases garden snails in the house, so many animals wonder around, a sky lantern burst in fire...) It follows an ordinary, messy household, but in the end it comes back to the suffering daughter and her mystical father. The trailer. 9/10.

🍿 I've seen half a dozen of the Women's Tales that Italian fashion house Miu Miu had sponsored since 2011. Some were better than others: Agnès Varda's, Hiam Abbass's, Lucrecia Martel's, Lynn Ramsey's. Lila Avilés's EYE TWO TIMES MOUTH from last year was not. The "Geometric" musings about various medias (a woman who works at a modern gallery but whose real love is opera) were too artsy-fartsy.[*Female Director X 2*]

🍿

“What about Toto Primitera? Nicola Scardaci? Iano Nicocia?…”

MAFIOSO (1962), my first black comedy with Alberto Sordi. A surprising gem that must have inspired Coppola when he worked on the first ''Godfather'. (He delightfully copied the "La porta!" moment, the McCluskey assassination, Don Vincenzo, the waiting car, the Cannolis, the shady underlings whispering, the out-of-it pretty wife... I wonder how many times he'd seen it.) Also, a Nino Rota music score. A newly cut trailer. Brilliantly quirky. 9/10.

🍿

2 WEIRD ONES FROM BELGIAN NICOLAS KEPPENS:

🍿 EASTER EGGS is a dark, very dark animation about two super-awkward teenagers, one older than the other, and their like-hate/abusive relationship. Like toxic Beavis and Butt-Head. It's rendered in an elegant Daniel Clowes style, and in a painful, magic realistic framing. Stark Flemish emptiness where the owner of the local Chinese restaurant hang himself in his bird cage, and the boys want to catch his escaped parrots so that they can buy a mountain bike with the cash. Recommended! 9/10.

🍿 WILDBEEST is another dry, little masterpiece. A fat, middle-age, middle class Belgian couple goes on a Safari in Africa, but gets abandoned by their tour-guide, because the man shoots a wild impala the tour guide likes. It's unique, funny, unpredictable, completely original. Recommended! 10/10.

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DEATH OF A BUREAUCRAT (1966), my first ridiculous film by Tomás Gutiérrez Alea, one of the greatest Cuban directors. A surrealist black comedy, Richard Lester meets Luis Buñuel, about a young knucklehead nephew who's trying to fight an endless Kafkaesque system. It even includes a major free-for-all raucous brawl that starts with a stolen casket and ends with a massive pie fight in a cemetery. 💯 score on Rotten Tomatoes.

🍿

"There is someone screaming".

Re-watch ♻️: After the failure of his second feature 'Gilliap', Roy Andersson went into a 25 year self-imposed film exile, and instead made a living directing commercials. His 1991 WORLD OF GLORY was his comeback film, and introduced his new, fully-formed, now-famous artificial, stilted style. It's as bleak as a weekend spent with Rudolf Höss's real estate broker, or Hannah Arendt's shrink - World of Gory, indeed. 10/10.

🍿

"Isn't life torture?..."

First watch: SANSHO THE BAILIFF (1954), only my second film by Kenji Mizoguchi (after 'Utamaro and His Five Women'). I did not expect the cruelty, misery and lack of mercy in this dark tale of slavery.

🍿

3 DIFFERENT INDIAN FILMS:

🍿 Somebody at "IndieWire" pulled a list of the "100 best musicals of all time" out of their, ehm, ear, and I thought I'll take on some of the less obvious choices and the ones I haven't seen yet.

PYAASA (1957) is the highest Bollywood offering on this list (No. 5), out of 9 overall Indian suggestions. But it didn't connect with me at all; A couple of the acts, like "Johnny Walker" singing 'Sar Jo Tera Chakraye' (colorized) and 'Hum Aap Ki Ankhon Mein' were okay, but the melodramatic soap opera about a depressed and impoverished "Poet" was ridiculous and tedious.

🍿 KANDITTUND! (SEEN IT!) (2021) is a uniquely-drawn tale of a 89 old fabulist grandfather, a village fabricator of far-fetched ghost and other home-grown stories. Original style can be compared to the best of indie animations anywhere! 9/10. [*Female Director*]

🍿 Also, the 2004 Oscar-nominated short LITTLE TERRORIST, a straight-forward political fable about a little Pakistani boy who crosses the border to India, after chasing a cricket ball that was tossed across the fence.

🍿

Re-watch ♻️: Don Herzfeldt's 3-chapter masterpiece IT'S SUCH A BEAUTIFUL DAY (2012) (Including EVERYTHING WILL BE OK and I AM SO PROUD OF YOU). Depressed stick-figure Billy is having trouble sleeping again and he's afraid he is losing his mind. But somehow he survives again and again - until he dies. Experimental, surreal, transcendental - and so sad. 💯 score on Rotten Tomatoes.

Also, his WORLD OF TOMORROW (2016) which by now I've seen about a dozen times, and is probably my second best movie of all time (After 'The Conversation'). "You are alive and living now. Now is the envy of all of the dead.” ♻️. 10/10.

🍿

3 BY JAROMIL JIREŠ:

🍿 THE JOKE (1969), the last politically-overt tragicomedy of the Czech New Wave, which (like 'The Ear') was promptly banned after the Soviet invasion. Based on a novel by Milan Kundera, it's a bitter tale of revenge and payback gone wrong.

🍿 UNCLE (1959), a cute joke short about a home burglar whose plans are thwarted by a toddler in a crib. 8/10.

🍿 The experimental THE HALL OF LOST STEPS blends a narrative of two young lovers who say goodbye at a central train station together with newsreel footage from Nazi extermination camps and warnings of nuclear holocaust. It's an impressionistic montage of fears of atrocities which were pervasive in 1960.

Next: His 'Valerie' and 'The Cry'.

🍿

THE EARLIEST TRUFFAUT / GODARD:

🍿 THE MISCHIEF MAKERS (1957) was Truffaut's first "real" film (in that his earlier short 'A visit' is lost). 5 boys all fall in love with a young woman, are jealous of her fiancé, and to show it, they harass them both. Many of his typical occupations are already preset here: A nostalgic look at preadolescence, the romantic nature of love, the visual clarity, the beauty of life in a small town. 7/10.

🍿 Truffaut and Godard directed A STORY OF WATER together, and I wish they had done more of it. It's a whimsical, light romance that was shot during the 1958 floods around Paris. 7/10. I said it before (about somebody else): How I wish that I never seen any of Truffaut's films, so that I could discover him again for the first time!

Also, a lovely 1960 Interview he gave after the success of 'Les Quatre Cents Coups'.

🍿 A FLIRTATIOUS WOMAN (1955), Godard's first short, shot in Geneva. A married young woman regrets picking up a stranger in the street. M'eh.

🍿

WASATI (2016) is a Saudi short which is based on a true event, when a group of extremists attacked the performers at a theater in Riyadh. But from there, the story turns into different tangents, some odd, some mystical. It's nearly good.

🍿

$1,000 A MINUTE is a daffy "comedy" from the height of the depression (1935), offering a 'Get rich fantasy' story to the struggling masses. An out-on-his-luck newspaper man is promised $10,000 if he can just blow through $720K within 12 hours. It's a very low-quality screwball farce: None of the writing, directing, acting, jokes, car chases, slapstick, romance and execution is any good. 1/10.

🍿

THROW-BACK TO THE ADORA ART PROJECT:  

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(ALL MY FILM REVIEWS - HERE).

[agentnico]

The Beast/La Bête (2024) review

Dolls, Blue Moon and… pigeons.

Plot: 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 previous lives and rid her of any strong feelings. She then meets Louis and feels a powerful connection, as if she has known him forever. A melodrama crossed by the genre, which unfolds over three distinct periods, 1910, 2014 and 2044.

Essentially this is a film that covers every genre possible. From *deep breath* melodrama to romance to thriller to mystery to sci-fi to drama to psychological to surrealism… the list goes on. It is so difficult to stick The Beast (or La Bête as the French title goes) into a specific box, as it’s so many things all at once. This is a bold and audacious piece of filmmaking from French director Bertrand Bonello, based on a Henry James short story/novells “The Beast in the Jungle”. However this film is anything but short. At over 2 and a half hours, this takes you on a disorientating, divergent and daring odyssey through time, and it is both bombastically incredible yet also highly frustrating. Look, this didn’t completely burn out my eye-sockets like Edward Yang’s 1991 epic magnum opus A Brighter Summer Day that was 4 flipping hours long! Don’t get me wrong, that movie has novelistic level of richness in character, narrative and depth, but at that runtime you’re taking the actual mick! So The Beast is nowhere on that scale, but it is definitely a movie that will challenge you mentally, and will make you question everything.

Exhausting is a word I’d choose to use when describing this film. Not in a negative way, but more so how it throws so much at you, but doesn’t explain the half of it. In fact it is very Lynchian in its absurdist style, and reminded me in some ways of Mullholland Drive - a movie at the end of which I too found myself asking the simple yet well earned question of “what the actual f***??”. The Beast feels, especially at the beginning, as if it should have been a piece of poetry, as scenes were happening, and even though there was the loose narrative connection of them being various versions of characters’ past lives, for the most part it seemed like a cluster of random allegorical shorts squeezed together in an anthological format. In the end it does come together granted, but as a collective Parnassus package this movie isn’t supposed to work. It can easily be called out for being pretentious and convoluted and slow, but I do believe this thing somehow, for no genuine explanation, works! It’s a baffling interweaving of the intimate and the spectacular, classicism and modernity, known vs the unknown, yet at this core this is a love story, that is expressed in its varied forms. Essentially The Beast is the answer to the ideology of human connection. Deep.

Wes Anderson darling/Bond girl Lea Seydoux is truly magnetic in this role. She delivers so much through her eyes, and I felt every emotion, even in scenes where I was completely narratively lost. This is easily her best performance I’ve seen from her. George MacKay has less to work with, as he’s more of a foil to Seydoux’s counterpart, but his chemistry with her is solid, and also in the LA segment he absolutely nails this incel character called Louis Lewanski who blogs/monologues on his iPhone about hatred towards women. It’s a performance that is suffused with pitch black humour and a mounting sense of dread. Both Seydoux and MacKay are incredible in this, but also I must applaud the look of this movie. Each shot feels like it should be a painting in a museum. The use of colour to the camera set up to the angle and blocking, with pitch perfect set designs and costumes, this movie looks crisp. The imagery somewhat reflects the movie’s focus on visions and dreams, and honestly this may be the most beautiful looking film this year.

La Bête will stick in my brain and haunt me for a long while, and in fact with how AI is such a current majorly spoken about topic, it does make one wonder if we do become overly reliant on artificial intelligence, will we lose all that is necessary to the human spirit - our emotions, our fears, our doubts? Additionally, the psychological idea of fear and that behind everything that we’re afraid of there is a wish, and the romantic ideal of persistent love…. gosh, this movie is sublime! I do think in parts it does get up its own arse, don’t get me wrong, but this is the type of movie that has something to say, and also is very much the kind of film Letterboxd users would quote as “THIS IS CINEMA!”.

Overall score: 8/10

[bill-millions-movies]

THE BEAST

"There must be beautiful things in this chaos."

FIRE ARC movie 3

THE BEAST (2023)

JANUARY 19, 2025

I saw this movie at Cinema 21 this past spring, and it was a bit more unsettling and perplexing than enjoyable... but then I couldn't stop thinking about it for weeks afterward. It's hard to pinhole; this iconoclastic vision from French director Betrand Bonello spans from 1910 Paris to a dark vision of the year 2044, and touches upon AI, past lives, toxic masculinity and alienation, all through a relationship that is reborn again and again over the centuries. A mind bender that I think will open up even more on a second viewing, it features a magnetic, stunning performance by Léa Seydoux (whom American audiences will know from Dune Pt. II and The French Dispatch), and ultimately made my top 10 list for 2024. Parts of it reminded me of Mulholland Drive in its layers of mystery and disorienting discomfort. This is fearless, high concept filmmaking.

"The Beast is an audacious interdimensional romance, techno-thriller and Los Angeles noir rolled up in one. This shamelessly ambitious epic is about, among other things, civilizational collapse and existential retribution, yet it is held together by something delicate." -New York Times

"Bertrand Bonello’s head-spinning Henry James adaptation set in 1910 Paris, 2014 LA and an AI-controlled 2044 casts a dreamlike spell... Elliptical, enigmatic and infused with a luxuriant melancholy, The Beast won’t be for everyone, but submit to its looping structure and beguiling dream logic, and this extremely loose adaptation of a novella by Henry James weaves a bewitching, if a trifle head-swimming spell." -The Guardian [4 stars]

7:25 trailers 7:30 - 9:56 The Beast

[Want to watch at home instead of joining us? The Beast is currently streaming on the Criterion Channel, or rent for $3.99 online]

[denimbex1986]

'...Best film La Chimera All We Imagine As Light The Zone of Interest Anora All of Us Strangers...

Best director Alice Rohrwacher for La Chimera Jonathan Glazer for The Zone of Interest Robin Campillo for Red Island Andrew Haigh for All of Us Strangers...

Best actor Cillian Murphy for Small Things Like These Andrew Scott for All of Us Strangers Paul Mescal for All of Us Strangers...

Best supporting actress Isabella Rossellini for Conclave Claire Foy for All of Us Strangers...

Best supporting actor Jeremy Allen White for The Iron Claw Denzel Washington for Gladiator II Jamie Bell for All of Us Strangers...

Best cinematography Hélène Louvart for La Chimera Jeanne Lapoirie for Red Island Jamie Ramsay for All of Us Strangers...

Best screenplay Jonathan Glazer for The Zone of Interest Osgood Perkins for Longlegs Bertrand Bonello, Guillaume Bréaud and Benjamin Charbit for The Beast Radu Jude for Do Not Expect Too Much From the End of the World Andrew Haigh for All of Us Strangers...'

[awardswatcherik]

2024 Florida Film Critics Circle (FFCC) Winners: 'The Beast' Named Best Picture, Director; Kieran Culkin is Best Actor for 'A Real Pain'

They do things a little bit different down in Florida. Bucking several critic trends this season, the Florida Film Critics Circle (FFCC) have named Bertrand Bonello’s The Beast the best film of 2024, also awarding the sci-fi epic about the dangers of AI Best Director and Best Actress to Léa Seydoux. But where they really went out on their own was nominating Carol Kane as Best Actress for…

[vietgiorgio]

"Fermer les yeux." The Beast (2023)

Director: Bertrand Bonello

Cinematography: Josée Deshaies

[penniesforthestorm]

I could go so much further with this, but alas, it is bedtime. (One of these days I'll do one for Martin Eden, which this fim reminded me of in a few particulars...)

[gsmattingly]

"The Beast" Review

I watched "The Beast" directed by Bertrand Bonello. It stars Léa Seydoux, George MacKay and numerous others. From IMDb, "In the near future artificial intelligence is in control of everyone's lives and human emotions are perceived as a threat. " That's a fairly simplistic summary. Here are two longer summaries, "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 previous lives and rid her of any strong feelings. She then meets Louis and feels a powerful connection, as if she has known him forever. A melodrama crossed by the genre, which unfolds over three distinct periods, 1910, 2014 and 2044.

Across three different time periods, Gabrielle (Léa Seydoux) continually falls in love with different incarnations of Louis (George MacKay). 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, The Beast in the Jungle, and suffused with mounting dread and a haunting sense of mystery."

Although I suppose it doesn't matter I had a rather hard time with the thought of "purifying the DNA" and being able to look through past lives through the DNA. That part seems pretty questionable to me but I suppose I'm not that knowledgeable about such things. Relative to the film, I don't think I felt as enamored of this film as did the reviewer at Empire. I will admit that the performances by the two main stars was very good. The shifting back and forth in time was interesting. The plot was rather intriguing. I thought the cinematography was good and the scene / time shifting worked well although it took a little to get use to the shifts.

I guess my issue is that I don't totally go along with the whole premise of the film.

[neoyan]

La bête Director Bertrand Bonello

[digitaltariq]

Léa Seydoux Soars in a Romantic Sci-Fi Epic

The Beast is sort of a slow-twisting knife to the facet of our existence, its level sharpened with care by writer-director Bertrand Bonello and guided with the utmost precision in order to not puncture any important organs — we're alive, however in simple ache. Certainly, arriving at a time when humanity is at its most anxious, emotionally exhausted, and existentially annoyed, the movie affords zero reprieve because it offers with grand questions of affection, demise, and loneliness. But, on the danger of untimely exclamation, it stands as some of the rewarding films you may see this yr. Loosely tailored from the 1903 Henry James novella, The Beast within the Jungle, The Beaststars Léa Seydoux as Gabrielle, a girl who decides to endure an emotional purification process that can eradicate her potential to expertise any and all robust emotions. It is the yr 2044, and it has since been deemed that people' capability for emotions has been a deterrent to progress, so people largely take part on this process with the intention to safe extra substantial jobs in society. After we first meet Gabrielle, her sole duty is to periodically test the temperature of an enormous piece of equipment, which is as monotonous a job as it could actually get. The emotional purification process is achieved on the DNA stage, so Gabrielle finds herself hooked as much as a Matrix-looking machine. Right here, she is thrust again to 2 essential time intervals: La Belle Époque in 1910 Paris, and the trendy mansions of 2014 Los Angeles. In each pasts and the current, we comply with the differing relationships Gabrielle kinds with Louis (George MacKay). Although their dynamics could also be distinct in every timeline, the unifying high quality is in how love and ache are inextricable from one another.

A Conceptual Jungle That Requires Endurance

The Beast (2024) 4/5 Launch Date February 7, 2024 Director Bertrand Bonello Solid Lea Seydoux , George MacKay , Guslagie Malanda , Dasha Nekrasova , Martin Scali , Elina Löwensohn , Marta Hoskins , Julia Faure Runtime 146 Minutes Writers Bertrand Bonello , Guillaume Breaud , Benjamin Charbit ProfessionalsA career-best efficiency from Seydoux and an important flip from MacKay Thematically wealthy and thought-provoking Performs curiously with its supply materials Fascinating use of sci-fi and interval tropes An absence of exposition might be off-putting for much less affected person viewers Destiny and doom are two pillars of James' authentic novella, which follows the reunion and relationship between John Marcher and Might Bartram. Psychological in nature, the story focuses on John's anxiousness over the assumption that an particularly tragic occasion will occur to him sooner or later, which he likens to a "beast within the jungle" patiently ready to strike. After all, the ethical of the story is that John is so preoccupied with worrying concerning the future that he fails to understand the life that he has within the current — the true "beast" is the all-too-late realization that he has wasted his time fretting over nothing. Bonello efficiently adapts these core themes in The Beast, but in addition expands the scope by, on one hand, infusing acquainted science fiction tropes and components of interval drama, and, on the opposite, amping up the romance between Gabrielle and Louis. The result's a movie that feels sensual, lush, and intimate, however is successfully laced with a crippling foreboding. La Belle Époque is a maximalist's dream, unabashed in its extravagance, and but one thing darkish and sinister creeps beneath (not in contrast to thick, pooling blood). Against this, 2044 is definitively beige in each sense of the phrase. And 2014, which feels closest to us as viewers, straddles the 2: a mausoleum of the previous that gestures in direction of a deranged future. Due to the conceptual density, The Beast is much from a stroll within the park, notably within the first 45 minutes of its two-and-a-half-hour runtime, as we're unmoored in each the previous and future, clamoring for expository clues. Nevertheless, Bonello milks every minute, and no time is wasted as he units the stage. Every timeline and setting Gabrielle finds herself in — whether or not it is a Parisian doll manufacturing unit, a Los Angeles nightclub, or a future the place every little thing seems to be and feels the identical — is handled with equal significance, as if the reply to each existential query can and might be discovered there. The worth of admission, right here, is endurance, and people who are keen to pay will profit probably the most.

Associated George MacKay's 10 Finest Films, Ranked Together with his new movie, Femme, releasing quickly, let's check out George MacKay's greatest films to date in his younger profession.

Léa Seydoux's Finest Efficiency to Date

With Seydoux and MacKay, Bonello could not have solid higher actors. The pair is magnetic on-screen, every drawing the opposite (and, because of this, us) into their orbit. Of the 2, MacKay is afforded probably the most noticeable variations in his character: in 1910, Louis is an English aristocrat who charms an already-married Gabrielle; in 2014, he's an American incel-type who stalks her; and in 2044, he is a mere stranger Gabrielle retains operating into and can not help however really feel a connection. MacKay is superb at exposing probably the most delicate nerves of every of those characters; you may't assist however wish to fall in love and run to your life on the similar time.

Associated 5 Sci-Fi Movies That Made 1982 a Actually Particular 12 months for the Style 1982 cemented itself as the most effective years of all time for the sci-fi style, with the releases of Blade Runner, E.T., and extra heavy hitters. With that mentioned, The Beast's largest triumph is in the end Seydoux's efficiency. Like MacKay, she takes on the duty of enjoying three completely different variations of Gabrielle throughout time and area, however arguably has the harder activity of navigating her subtleties, imbuing every with heartfelt nuance and tragic grace. All through her on-screen profession, particularly inside European arthouse cinema of the final decade, Seydoux has constantly established herself as some of the soulful performers of her era. Her signature unhappy eyes and smooth vocal tenor are used to nice impact right here, anchoring us into every little thing Gabrielle is feeling. That is an attention-grabbing dichotomy when you think about that Gabrielle spends the whole thing of The Beast making an attempt to not really feel something. Actually, it is this inevitability of feeling on her half that will get to the foundation of Bonello's movie: alas, even probably the most hole cup possesses the inherent potential to be stuffed — and, by extension, spill over. What's the level of life, love, and longing, then, appears to be the query that hovers over the ultimate moments of the movie and past. Desirous about the place we're on this planet proper now, the reply — or, maybe extra accurately, the dearth thereof — is sufficient to make you wish to scream. From Vertigo Releasing, The Beast opens in choose theaters April 19. Read the full article

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Friday Releases for April 5

Friday is the busiest day of the week for new releases, so we've decided to collect them all in one place. Friday Releases for April 5 include The People’s Joker, Monkey Man, Sugar, and more.

The People’s Joker

The People’s Joker, the new movie from Vera Drew, is out today.

This revolutionary DIY parody film and hilarious reimagining of the classic autobiographical coming-of-age story follows an unconfident, closeted trans girl as she moves to Gotham City to make it big as a comedian by joining the cast of UCB Live - a government-sanctioned late night sketch show in a world where comedy has been outlawed. As mainstream success eludes our heroine, leading her to unite with a ragtag team of rejects, misfits, and a certain love interest named Mister J, “Joker the Harlequin” is born again as a confident (and psychotic) joker on a collision course with the city’s fascist caped crusader. Vats of feminizing chemicals, sexy cartoon interludes, scarecrow psychiatrists, CGI Lorne Michaels, and psychedelic gender dysphoria all play supporting roles.

Monkey Man

Monkey Man, the new movie from Dev Patel, is out today.

Inspired by the legend of Hanuman, an icon embodying strength and courage, Monkey Man stars Dev Patel as Kid, an anonymous young man who ekes out a meager living in an underground fight club where, night after night, wearing a gorilla mask, he is beaten bloody by more popular fighters for cash. After years of suppressed rage, Kid discovers a way to infiltrate the enclave of the city’s sinister elite. As his childhood trauma boils over, his mysteriously scarred hands unleash an explosive campaign of retribution to settle the score with the men who took everything from him.

Chicken For Linda!

Chicken For Linda!, the new movie from Sébastien Laudenbach and Chiara Malta, is out today.

Paulette feels guilty after unjustly punishing her daughter Linda and would do anything to make it up to her. Linda immediately asks for a meal of chicken with peppers, which reminds her of the dish her father used to make. But with a general strike closing stores all across town and pushing people into the streets, this innocent request quickly leads to an outrageous series of events that spirals out of control, as Paulette does everything she can to keep her promise and find a chicken for Linda.

Parachute

Parachute, the new movie from Brittany Snow, is out today.

From Director Brittany Snow, Parachute tells the story of Riley (Courtney Eaton) and Ethan (Thomas Mann), who must navigate blossoming love and friendship while trying to overcome combustible personal struggles.

Scoop

Scoop, the new movie from Philip Martin, is out today.

Inspired by real events, this fictional dramatization gives an insider account of how the women of Newsnight secured Prince Andrew’s infamous interview.

The Beast

The Beast, the new movie from Bertrand Bonello, is out today.

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 their 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 Gabrielle to fully connect with Louis in the present, or are the two doomed to repeat their previous fates?

The First Omen

The First Omen, the new movie from Arkasha Stevenson, is out today.

When a young American woman is sent to Rome to begin a life of service to the church, she encounters a darkness that causes her to question her own faith and uncovers a terrifying conspiracy that hopes to bring about the birth of evil incarnate.

The Greatest Hits

The Greatest Hits, the new movie from Ned Benson, is out today.

Harriet (Lucy Boynton) experiences a unique connection between art and reality. She discovers that specific songs have the power to transport her back in time, driving her to relive various special moments with her ex-boyfriend (David Corenswet). Her time-traveling experiences begin to bleed into present day when meeting someone new (Justin H. Min). Throughout her journey, Harriet explores the mesmerizing link between music and memory, facing her with difficult decisions of whether altering the past is a choice worth making.

Baghead

Baghead, the new movie from Alberto Corredor, is out today.

Following the death of her estranged father (Peter Mullan), Iris (Freya Allan) learns she has inherited a run-down, centuries-old pub. She travels to Berlin to identify her father’s body and meet with The Solicitor (Ned Dennehy) to discuss the estate. Little does she know, when the deed is signed she will become inextricably tied to an unspeakable entity that resides in the pub’s basement – Baghead – a shape-shifting creature that can transform into the dead. Two thousand in cash for two minutes with the creature is all it takes for desperate loved ones to ease their grief. Neil (Jeremy Irvine), who has lost his wife, is Iris’ first customer. Like her father, Iris is tempted to exploit the creature’s powers and help desperate people for a price. But she soon discovers breaking the two-minute rule can have terrifying consequences. Together with her best friend Katie (Ruby Barker), Iris must battle to keep control of Baghead and figure out how to destroy her, before she destroys them.

The Old Oak

The Old Oak, the new movie from Ken Loach, is out today.

THE OLD OAK is a special place. Not only is it the last pub standing, but it’s also the only remaining public space where people can meet in a once thriving mining community that has now fallen on hard times after 30 years of decline. TJ Ballantyne (Dave Turner) the landlord hangs on to The Old Oak by his fingertips, and his predicament is endangered even more when the pub becomes contested territory after the arrival of Syrian refugees who are placed in the village without any notice. In an unlikely friendship TJ meets a curious young Syrian Yara (Ebla Mari) with her camera. Can they find a way for the two communities to understand each other? So unfolds a deeply moving drama about their fragilities and hopes.

Sugar

Sugar, the new TV series from Mark Protosevich, is out today.

“Sugar” is a contemporary, unique take on one of the most popular and significant genres in literary, motion picture and television history: the private detective story. Academy Award nominee Colin Farrell stars as John Sugar, an American private investigator on the heels of the mysterious disappearance of Olivia Siegel, the beloved granddaughter of legendary Hollywood producer Jonathan Siegel. As Sugar tries to determine what happened to Olivia, he will also unearth Siegel family secrets; some very recent, others long-buried.

Mary & George

Mary & George, the new TV series from D. C. Moore, is out today.

Mary & George is an audacious historical psychodrama starring Academy Award-winner Julianne Moore (Still Alice) and Nicholas Galitzine (Red, White & Royal Blue), about a treacherous mother and son who schemed, seduced and killed to conquer the Court of England and the bed of King James I.

Dinosaur

Dinosaur, the new TV series from Matilda Curtis and Ashley Storrie, is out today.

Created by Matilda Curtis and Ashley Storrie, Dinosaur follows Nina (Ashley Storrie), an autistic woman in her 30s, who adores living with her sister and best friend, Evie. They have a routine, and they understand each other like no one else could until Evie rushes into an engagement after only six weeks. Nina is forced to grapple with her sister’s impulsive decision whilst navigating love, sisterhood and her life as it’s turned upside down.

Parasyte: The Grey

Parasyte: The Grey, the new TV series from Yeon Sang-ho and Ryu Yong-jae, is out today.

When unidentified parasites violently take over human hosts and gain power, humanity must rise to combat the growing threat.

Virginia

Virginia, the new album from Pharrell Williams, is out today.

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‘La bestia’: el universo de Henry James vira hacia un futuro en torno a la inteligencia artificial y a los ‘incel’

La nueva película de Bertrand Bonello es una apuesta valiente y con ciertos apuntes de interés, pero no tiene la prosa cinematográfica elegante y profunda del texto del escritor estadounidense George MacKay y Léa Seydoux en una imagen de ‘La bestia’. Escrito por JAVIER OCAÑA Que dos directores franceses de una generación parecida —Patric Chiha, de 49 años, y Bertrand Bonello, de 55— hayan…