Reviewer's Rating 2 out of 5
La B锚te (The Beast) (1975)
18

Lucy Broadhurst (Hummel) is an American heiress betrothed to the son of a once powerful French family. Lucy's arrival at the crumbling French homestead provokes all manner of sexual interest and intrigue, not least from a lustful beast prowling the estate whose fierce reputation rests upon a fabled encounter with a former lady of the house.

Very much a curate's egg - and the most recent title to benefit from the 's adoption of a more liberal attitude - Borowczyk's adult update of the "Beauty and the Beast" legend has acquired a hefty reputation as an explicit, titillating exploration of sexuality and desire.

Wrapped in Bernard Daillencourt's suitably soft-focus photography, Borowczyk's film is at turns perverse, laughable, and compelling. The performances are uniformly awful and time has not been too kind to the ragged creature effects, in essence, a man in a rather ragged gorilla suit. At times the film is also undeniably offensive, pandering to male fantasy (the point of view shots of women being stalked in various stages of undress is especially distressing) as is the pseudo-rape fantasies the film attributes to its female characters. Further, the black characters are base caricatures given lingering associations with bestial, crazed sexual appetites.

Yet for all its many faults - and to be fair time has not been particularly kind to the film with its flashes of almost Benny Hillesque sauciness - the film does exert a bizarre fascination and contain moments of genuine eroticism. A distinctly surreal, unsettling viewing experience and certainly unlike anything else to currently be found in cinemas.

End Credits

Director: Walerian Borowczyk

Writer: Walerian Borowczyk

Stars: Sirpa Lane, Lisbeth Hummel, Elisabeth Kaza, Pierre Benedetti, Guy Tr茅jan, Roland Armontel

Genre: Drama

Length: 98 minutes

Original: 1975

Cinema: 04 May 2001

Country: France

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