Walerian Borowcyzk's controversial 1975 film casts the tale of BEAUTY AND THE BEAST in a bizarre, erotic light. This release features the full uncut version.
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Controversially banned for 25 years when it was first released in 1975 The Beast is an erotic reworking of the Beauty and The Beast tale, released in November 2001 in a full uncut and subtitled version of the French original.
My overall opinion: messy, and curious, and well strange, onto the review:
The film opens with a rather bizarre, extraordinary close-up and intimate scene of two horses having sex, in the courtyard of a very large chateau looked on and assisted by a number of men, one of whom is Mathurin, the son of the brother of the Duke De Comte (forgive me if this is incorrect - but the familial relationships in the film weren't that clear)
In the chateau there are two rather bitchy old men, the Duke and his brother (Mathurin's father) who are trying to contact the Cardinal in Rome (who is the Duke's brother) to come and conduct a marriage ceremony between Mathurin and a young lady from England named Lucy.
A local priest and two altarboys arrive to baptise Mathurin so that he can then be married to Lucy.
Whilst this is taking place we see Lucy and her aunt travelling towards the chateau, Lucy highly excited and excitable seems to be jumping out of the vehicle every few minutes to take photographs with her instamatic camera usually of the surrounding countryside on their way.
When the two ladies arrive at the chateau the horses are still copulating and Lucy again jumps out of the car and starts to take photographs, her aunt pulls her back into the car and orders the driver to turn the vehicle around and go to the front of the chateau.
The Duke and his brother seem to be having trouble contacting the Cardinal about the marriage ceremony because of some trouble with Mathurin and the news of his recent baptism is telegraphed to the Cardinal in the hope that that will ease the situation and encourage the Cardinal to come to the chateau to conduct the marriage ceremony, apparently he is needed to conduct the ceremony as part of Lucy's father's last will and testament, so that she can come into her inheritance.
The ladies arrive at the chatea and learn about the myth of The Beast that apparently attacked a distant female relative of the brothers.
Later after dinner Lucy retires to her room and after gazing at the photographs she took of the horses copulating, dreams about the said attack, and later makes an amazing discovery about her bridegroom to be.
The film is described as being about female sexuality whilst not being pornographic, saying that there is female nudity throughout the film, and depictions of female masturbation, but the majority of the eroticism of the film is of a bestial nature, namely the horses copulating and the beast attack dream sequence that arouses Lucy intently.
The beast sequence is both quite disturbing and funny at the same time, it is so obviously a guy in a beast costume, and not a particularly good costume at that, but there are extreme close-ups of what is supposed to be the beast's penis dripping constantly during the attack. This did make me feel a bit sick after a while.
The eroticism of the film really does hinge heavily on animals and beastial nature, nature itself seems to very much be central to the erotic episodes I felt, in one scene during the attack the victim sees a snail on her discarded shoe and is licking her lips suggestively, I found this quite distasteful although I'm not sure why!
Given that the film is now over thirty years old it did seem a little dated, the fashions seemed to be rather confused I thought, it was hard to determine whether it was supposed to be a period piece, in one scene the daughter of the Duke's brother is seen dressed quite contemporarily in jeans, whilst Lucy's nightgown looks decidedly more victorian or antiquated.
The actors are fairly believable, the two old men, the Duke and his brother both seem very much in character and are convincing in their mannerisms and attitudes. Lucy however simply seems to run around, either screaming, lusting laviciously or gazing wistfully at the rose that Mathurin gave to her.
The soundtrack was quite unmemorable apart from the awful nerve-grating Elizabethan tune that coincided with the beast attack dream sequence.
The mood of the film was at times quite comical, the interplay between the two brothers and their bitchiness, the Duke's 200 year old leaf collection, the boxes in the kitchen constantly being tripped up over, and the nonsensical drama of pretence over the Cardinal's impending arrival at the chateau.
The exploration of female sexuality within the film was also nonsense I thought, I found it pleasantly open in the manner it adopted towards female masturbation, treating it candidly as quite matter of fact, but the lustful Lucy's beast fixation was not at all erotic and I did in fact get up and walk off at one point thinking that I may actually throw-up because the amount of fluid was quite sickening.
Overall, I wouldn't recommend this film, it was overlong, a bit messy, very strange and not even decently erotic.
Extra features on the DVD include a short french film called The Tide, which again was overlong and not really worth bothering with, a filmography and a picture gallery.
I have found it on Amazon to be priced at £19.99 and probably not widely available to rent.
Thanks for reading.
More details
Soundtrack
Weak
How does it compare to others by the same director?
Not applicable
Value for Money
Poor
What format are you reviewing?
DVD
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