THE
BEAST (1975)Director: Walerian Borowczyk
Cult Epics
THE
BEAST (1975)Originally planned to be one of the short stories in his landmark anthology film, IMMORAL TALES (1974), Walerian Borowczyk's THE BEAST is a bizarre slice of French cinema, to say the least. Scenes of a hairy bear-like creature (I guy in a costume), pursuing Euro cult item Sirpa Lane (LIVING NIGHTMARE) and raping her are combined with a semi-comic narrative involving a strange aristocratic family and their attempts to hold a wedding ceremony.
Taking place in remote French chateau, Pierre de l'Esperance (Guy Trejan) plans to marry his wretched son (Pierre Benedetti) to Lucy Broadhurst (Lisbeth Hummel) so that a fortune can be obtained. The marriage must be conducted within a certain time frame for this to happen, but they're having a difficult time getting the Cardinal--a family uncle--to come and perform the ceremony, as he is reluctant to appear for some unkown reason.
As Hummel awaits her wedding day, she has dreams about 18th century sexpot Romilda de l'Esperance (Lane) and her sexual experiences with the title creature. Lane is chased through the woods and then assaulted by the titular character who ejaculates many times with his "Dirk Diggler," which more or less resembles a dark-skinned elephant trunk. These scenes are indescribable, but it's easy to see why the film ran into so many censorship problems and was banned in certain places. The tie-in finale incorporates a family curse to try and explain and sum up everything.
Borowczyk's unique film explores the extreme sexuality of women and their desires. First of is Hummel who is shown pleasuring herself with rose pedals, the young Esperance daughter who has sex with the black servant but has to take to the bedpost as he's constantly called upon during their intercourse, and finally Lane, who after being terrified by the beast's advances learns to enjoy the bestiality brought upon her.
Borowczyk's films are often considered arty, but they more closely resemble the 70s and 80s Eurocine films of Jess Franco. Like those efforts, there's endless zooms employed, and his peering camera shots are most likely due to cramped indoor locations, not artistic merit. THE BEAST borders on pornography, and will likely shock and offend some, but its voyeuristic style will probably allure fans that are into these sort of films. By the way, Sirpa made a sequel of sorts for another director: THE BEAST IN SPACE (1978).
Cult Epics have given the film a decent-looking transfer. Letterboxed at 1.66:1, the colors look acceptable, and the source print is in very good shape. This is the English-dubbed version, and the post-synched dialog sounds somewhat hollow due to the process, but is very clear because of it. There are no extras on the disc, but followers of weird and wild European cinema will certainly want to investigate this disc. (George R. Reis)