The Beast commences with a female actress shouting at an imaginary enemy while participating in a green screen shoot, giving insight into its core theme which is about, the menace of the new age as technological progress and the dread of a threat that does not even exist. Aided by Bertrand Bonello, the film has two halves like a pair of slices of bread, with Gabrielle, portrayed by Léa Seydoux, meeting Louis, played by George MacKay, at first sometime forward and at the other sometime in the past. The film goes deep into the history of the assault on the psyche and also warns those who are seeking to substitute it for simply living in everyday life, for technological interferes all too often with human emotions.
Sure, it does sound intricate, so get ready. The Beast is, to put it mildly, a bit of a creature, due to its three narratives, and its unique and recurring symbolism. The film starts off in 1910 where Gabrielle was a musician, then transitions into 2014, where the self-titled ‘The Beast’ is a model and actress looking after a home in Los Angeles, and the year 2044, wherein she is contemplating to ‘purify’ her DNA in an effort to find employment in a world riddled with AI technology. In all three timelines, she is plagued with the thought of being obliterated, though, she is left wondering if the feeling itself is a figment of her imagination.
Bonello, to the film’s advantage, does not provide the background towards the reality depicted in the story in chronological order, a phenomenon common with less captivating science fiction movies. The reality of 2044 does seem concerning where experts have voiced their fears about a possibly Qust dystopian world existence due to the use of AI technology.
Evidently, there was a tragedy which stemmed from the advancement of AI tools back in 2025. Because of this, the Government plans on restraining human beings by erasing their memories which will stop them from making biased decisions. This will allow for a better, less emotionally taxing workforce. When considering these events, the use of a quirky letterbox in the film makes absolute sense as it places the audience in a dim world, which has overturned citizens as depicted by Guslagie Malanda who made a brief appearance in ‘Doll’ Kelly.
There is little to no questioning why William James describes Léa Seydoux’s portrayal as ‘effortlessly passionate’. This is rather visible in the way she responds to emotions, even if the reality presented is slightly amiss. While considering this, it does come to shock that Lynch recommended that she must be ‘subtle’ with her portrayal of ‘doll’ Kelly. Yet, there still is a hint of tension that permeates the 2044 scenes similar to the one surrounding Laura Palmer in Twin Peaks.
The director achieves this by making Seydoux’s Gabrielle squirm, and in doing so, he evokes an insatiable curiosity about the question. In a captivating manner, Bonello fumbles between sci-fi and reality, making a point to remind us of the great Flood in Paris during the 1910s and Isla Vista shooting’ a few years ago, allowing viewers, like Gabrielle in the movie, to discern between fact and fiction.
2014 is where things began to become ever more dread inducing, the sense of impending doom during this era was palpable. It’s safe to say Gabrielle’s portrayal of a model during the millennial era when paired with equal parts narcissism and stylist sunglasses, videophones, Youtube and news cast epitomizes the era perfectly, but Bonello has a message with all of this and it’s simple: wake up.
At its core, The Beast makes us contemplate an uncomfortable inquiry: would you be willing to undergo a surgical intervention that obliterates the parts inside your brain responsible for distress and fear? Now, although such concepts appear as metaphysical as the way the movie depicts anxiety bears elements to reality, it addresses the insidious implication of anxiety, the recurrent obsession with times gone by and the measures in which we risk ourselves for the sheer hope of inner calmness.
This sense of temporariness, even if quite set with regards to present-day neuroses, has been true throughout humanity’s history; it is based on Henry James’ short story In the Jungle that observes: “It wouldn’t have been not to be anything, if there was any, failure; to be bankrupt, to be disgraced, to show up in the pillory, and to be executed would not.” This is a good viewpoint from Bonello: don’t shy from the possibility of disaster, because if you do, then the future will be a different narrative altogether.
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