Like the writer and director Bertrand Bonello, the present AI situation is already spooky. So much so, he framed one third of his film The Beast in 2044. He said he’d never do it again though because in reality, by the time the film was finished, he felt 2044 looked more like 2027.
The film writing, shared with two others (Guillamie Breaud and Benjamin Charbit), was amazing. I felt like the two and half hours, while he could have been whittled down a smidge, flew by and I really ‘experienced things’. Which is exactly what the characters avoid in the three different time periods.
Without giving too much away, in 1910, Lea Seydoux’s character is afraid of leaving a dull relationship for one with pizazz, in 2014 George Makay is avoiding rejection, and in 2044, Lea Seydoux is finally ready to get it right.
More than those plot lines is a reincarnation theory (which I’d love to believe is true) and threw in a Roy Orbison tune to illustrate this, technology dehumanizing us, dolls representative of both sweet (role playing for kids) and sour (a non-emotional fake representations), along with the pressure women feel to get their faces fixed to look alike (and obviously much younger), the indifference people have more and more for talking to ‘strangers’ (akin to the hurtful middle school scenario where one is rejected from a lunch seat by a gang of mean kids).
Additionally, Bonello wrote the music with his daughter Anna (and his life partner Josee Desahies was cinematographer).
Bonello has created a cinematic masterpiece (small case m, meaning nearly perfect) of suspense and unrequited love. I really felt like I went somewhere yesterday at Burns Court Theater, Sarasota! Tres tres bien!
