The Beast (1975) Poster

(1975)

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6/10
A zoophiliac's wettest dream
StevePulaski10 March 2016
NOTE: This film was recommended to me by Zachary George Najarian-Najafi for "Steve Pulaski Sees It."

Walerian Borowczyk's La Bête is a seriously grotesque film, but unless you have the patience to make it through about an hour of glacially paced exposition, you won't realize why. In terms of going from zero to one-hundred in terms of plot-escalation, La Bête takes the cake with positioning itself like an ordinary, albeit slightly off-kilter, melodrama about an arranged relationship in a close-knit family, before becoming a zoophiliac's ultimate cinematic desire.

The story opens following the death of a businessman named Philip Broadhurst, who leaves his estate to his daughter Lucy (Lisbeth Hummel) with the only condition being that she be married to a man named Mathurin (Pierre Benedetti) by the brother of Pierre's uncle within the next six months. Despite Mathurin's mental deficiencies and deformities, Lucy still agrees to marry him, with her and her aunt Virginia (Elisabeth Kaza) taking a trip to the Pierre's brother's farmhouse. At the farmhouse, Lucy learns of a two-hundred-year-old fairytale about a beast living in the woods adjacent to the farmhouse.

For about an hour, we endure ostensibly neverending conversation between this enormous family-to-be, none of it really amounting to anything other than frustration due to the lack of human interest and a great deal of pointless sermonizing about family and the marital bond. It isn't until the hour mark that Borowczyk, also the screenwriter here, flips the switch and turns La Bête into something cruelly twisted. Without giving too much away, for much of the final thirty minutes of this film need be experienced, the film involves a dark, twisted dream sequence (or maybe not) of Lucy's intimate, sexual relationship with the aforementioned beast.

Borowczyk doesn't hold back in what he wants the audience to see in La Bête, so much so that he's willing to show us a bear ejaculating and performing cunnilingus on Lucy, resulting in Lucy enduring a series of bloody scratches. No taboo in beastiality is left untouched as the film details some of the most wicked sexual perversions you're likely to see come to life on screen in your life. Me being so young, I feel I have a ways to go, which only works to keep me up at night even more.

As an art film, La Bête is rather tasteful up until its final act. The film is nicely shot, with numerous, intimate camera angles taking the place of the predictable scuzzy aesthetic one would expect this film to have, in addition to having several nicely decorated sets and some solid exterior shots of the forest where much of this action happens. As a pornographic film, La Bête is most artful in a sense, but the porn itself is anything but erotic. It almost feels like shock value, especially when we must endure numerous closeups of a gigantic bear ejaculating repeatedly.

La Bête is a curious oddity, destined to gather dust on the seldom surviving, family-owned VHS stores where ultra-weird, almost unspeakable cult classic, and some just stopping at "cult," films precariously placed on towering shelves. I can almost envision an ordinary, black VHS tape with a color-faded, peeling white label with "The Beast" written in pencil, discolored and sun-damaged to look like simple hashmarks, sitting on the shelf looking unassuming and innocent but bearing quite the visual wallop. That's precisely what La Bête is; a visual wallop not for the faint of heart. I'm sure Lucy herself would say something similar.

Starring: Lisbeth Hummel, Pierre Benedetti, and Elisabeth Kaza. Directed by: Walerian Borowczyk.
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7/10
La Bete and the British censors...
morpheusatloppers4 January 2009
Warning: Spoilers
I saw this film in a London cinema in 1975 and have not seen it since. I found it hilarious. I loved it's originality. It's rare that someone MAKES a movie like this - and it's sad too.

What I mean is, I once read a book called "The Black Hotel" - and as a film-fan, I always "picture" books as films. Kinda "adapt" them, you know? But as I read it, I thought, well, this would make a great movie - but of course it would have to be "adapted" - to the point where it would bear little relationship to the book.

But then I thought, well WHY? Sure, it could never be shown on Sunday afternoon TV, but provided it were shown in cinemas to ADULTS, who knew what it contained, where's the HARM? Dammit, my civil liberties were being crushed here. A director SHOULD be able to make a literal film adaptation of "The Black Hotel".

In an ideal World, censorship of films for adults should not EXIST. But sadly, whilst I accept that with INTELLIGENT adults, such freedom might be harmless, there would always be those who would lack the rationality to differentiate between fantasy and reality, and who might be spurred on to commit foul deeds.

However, it's hard to see how "La Bete" falls into that category.

On it's appearance in England, the British censor dismissed it out of hand. Despite the '69 relaxation on nudity, given the film's theoretical theme of bestiality, had the censor passed ANY of it, he'd have been looking for a new job on Monday.

BUT... in those days, there was an alternative. The G.L.C. This was a local town council with a department who had the power to pass a film just for London, where it was deemed audiences were more "sopisticated" than those who lived out in the sticks.

The film was duly submitted and PASSED. However, it later emerged that the "board" consisted of just four people - three who voted, plus a "chairman". And on the day, one of the voters was off sick. Thus the remaining two voters and the chairman sat down to view "La Bete".

One of said voters thought, like me, that the film was hilarious and hardly likely to encourage foul deeds by ANYONE. The other lacked imagination and simply thought the piece disgusting. And the chairman didn't understand it, so decided to err on the side of FREEDOM.

When the missing voter finally saw the film, they too thought it disgusting, but it was TOO LATE! The film had received its "X-London" certificate and opened to mixed reaction. The G.L.C. film censorship board was disbanded soon after! Thus "La Bete" only opened in London by what could best be termed a FLUKE! But I'm glad it was. It's GREAT! If you haven't seen it, DO so. It's a FANTASY, and as such, it's far less disturbing than most things you see on the news these days...
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5/10
Weird sex, makes you think. Acting is bad, scenery and milieu nice. Worth a watch.
mehobulls14 September 2020
Fussy contradiction: from a film full of female body sexualization, what stands out is the artifact of the monster's virile member in constant ejaculation, or rather, the desire for women, in a voyeuristic perspective, is stressed by the power of the phallus, even though by an intermediary huge artifact. In a film that began by promising a Buñuelian irony, class analysis included, stands out the kitsch.
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Notorious fairy tale still packs a punch
FilmFlaneur28 January 2002
Borowczyk's notorious film begins with an apt 'exclamation mark' - the erect penis of Mathurin's stallion, the shape of which fills the screen as it goes to stud. This film, described by one critic as the "most erotic film ever made" is full of such fleshy exclamation points: those of horses, of the virile servant Pierre, or the eponymous creature. This is a film whose explicit depiction of bestiality kept it off British screens for a quarter of a century, although an emasculated version appeared a few years back on video under the title of 'Death's Ecstasy'. Those who are used to Borowczyk's hothouse mise-en-scene will know what to expect as the director characteristically combines matter of fact staging with lustful fantasy, in a way that only a east european sensibility can carry off.

'The Beast' appeared approximately half way in a career spanning art house successes such as 'Blanche' (1971) to the creative nadir of 'Emmanuelle 5' (1987). Most of his films represent sensuality – especially the feminine kind - being discovered as a matter of primacy then typically, explored in erotic, private rituals. The urgency at which females seek satisfaction in these works is shocking or refreshing according to one's viewpoint. Borowczyk's heroines, when apart from their lovers, typically pleasure themselves quietly in chambers, as in the 'cucumber' scene in ‘Contes Immoraux/Immoral Tales' (1974)(A film in which the content of the flashback in here was originally to have appeared). Although they take their fulfillment, their secret fantasies are largely unexpressed. ‘The Beast' makes explicit this process of gratification, and places sexual dreams before our eyes, most noticeably in an extended flashback sequence. This of course is done after literary precedent (albeit from a tradition typically suppressed or hidden, as in the film itself). On one level of course, Borowczyk has made a variation on Beauty and The Beast. More precisely his film has its roots firmly in the adult realm of the pre-victorian fairy tale, as well as claiming an ancestory from the verse fables which have enlivened French culture, most famously by La Fontaine.

To be honest, much of the plot of 'The Beast' is forgettable, a dramatic concoction which serves a set-up for the director's impending erotic tour-de-force. The modern story is a comedy of sexual manners, contrasting the elegance of life in the chateau with the moral squalor and hypocrisy of its inhabitants. Pierre's repeated, frustrated dalliances merely anticipate the grand inter-species coupling to come. The Marquis' plans, his shabby chateau and brutish son, the forced wedding provide so much window dressing, as stereotypical as the tales that inspired them although Mathurin (played by a suitably glum Pierre Benedetti) comes across as sensitive as well as animal. Standing out without apology, the real concerns here are like the phallic column-stump prominent in the chateau grounds, the images remaining with the viewer after the film is finished exactly those which the director intended – the irrational and sexual.

Although nominally set in the twentieth century, the action of the film could with little difficulty be transposed to earlier times - the middle ages say, where the director has found inspiration before. Apart from the telephone and car, very little intrudes from the modern era. The chateau, full of sharp sounds and still silence, old wooden floors and hushed servants, has an almost institutional air. The presence of the clergy in the house paints a religious-like environment, and one where correctness and arousal go hand in hand - a scenario familiar from such other Borowczyk films as 'Interno di un convento/Behind Convent Walls' (1977). The heated harpsichord music of Scarlatti with its strong rhythmic pattern and run of impassioned semi-quavers, adds to the impression of sexual emotions scuttling free beneath the surface. Outside, the overgrown, rambling grounds have a timeless quality about them. One can almost imagine Little Red Riding Hood skipping through the trees on an errand.

Apart from the baldness of its sexual images, the reason why 'The Beast' provoked such an uproar when first released is because it is an honest, adult work. It deals with human sexuality real or imagined, with complete open handedness, admitting the pretend life without hesitation. The fantastic elements of Lucy's masturbatory day dreams, seen at length and so vividly after she reads the diary, should alert the viewer to that. Mathurin is more than just the other half of the Beauty and The Beast equation. He is symbol-made-concrete of the sexual fantasies she (and by extension, we) enjoy. The 200 year cycle of the beast's reappearance truly marks ‘the return of the repressed', and Lucy's flashback the liberation of desire. More than this her enjoyment of lustful fantasy implies how much we should become the honest brokers of our imaginations. The original view of the BBFC not withstanding, the result is then that any notion of pornography fades away in favour of recognising our true natures. Unfortunately, as Borowczyk retreated into more commercial projects, this straightforwardness disappeared to be replaced by exploitation. As a result ‘The Beast' remains as his most striking piece of film making. After 25 years after it was made it still creates a memorable impression.
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7/10
I've seen a lot of strange films..but.....
psu19023 August 2005
this one is out there. Not much to say about it except that it deals with a rarely touched topic in films of beastiality. I can see why this film was banned for so long, the topics dealt within the film are still a little taboo for most of the world will say the eroticism in the film is well deserved and fits in with the mood of the film. It's a good film that is well acted and serves a purpose ...to shock the viewer and cross boundaries that we don't see to often in films. I came across this film on the net that I thought I might check out. I enjoyed the film as it is thought provoking and somewhat erotic at the same time. Something you don't rarely see in films today.
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2/10
If subconscious desire and human psychology are inaccessible, why should i watch it?
K_M_R_I_A6 February 2006
Warning: Spoilers
Walerian Borowczyks La Bete (1975) was obviously received in different ways: Some were appalled, some were shocked others applauded the courage. I however am completely untouched, bored and cannot stop asking myself why the display of incoherent, inconsistent images which vaguely orbit around a central theme are considered an intellectual journey.

What was this movie actually about? Growing sexuality in a woman? I've seen great films on this subject, but this is not one of them. How can one attempt to portray a growing sexuality in a girl without at least trying to characterize her as a person not only as a narrative device to dream (in the nude) of beasts. Where there are no characters, there is no character study. The woman persecuted by the beast was not adolescent, the girl having sex with the black butler (is he also characterized as a beast?) has a very grown up attitude to sexuality, so where is the consistency? Is it a movie about religion? If yes we would need a bit more thematic material than a priest without function, character and charisma, but with a strong desire towards two young boys.

Is it about bestiality? The metaphoric feel of the movie forbids any realistic examination of bestiality, especially as realistic examination requires realistic characters. So no real bestiality here. Some mythic beast and two priests talking to each other about the sin of bestiality. Enough for a college essay on the topic? I don't think so.

Is it about sex? Is it about anything? I don't know. I only know that showing a fired gun doesn't make a film a war movie. Dealing with a topic must mean more than displaying its own associations with the theme.

So look across the controversy. Don't be scared by the bestiality, nudity, ejaculations, masturbation and stuff. I am not. Look at it as you look at any other story and you might discover that this is a poorly made, poorly edited, poorly acted, really poorly written (okay, some pictures are quite nice, and the main character is a really good looking girl) cerebral masturbation of a director who thinks beating around the bush in a hypnotic slow manner will make a story intelligent. It doesn't. It makes it boring.
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6/10
The Dirtiest Thing I've Ever Watched
emryse19 January 2022
This film was disgusting in parts and disgusting in other parts, I'm sure there's an audience for this stuff but I don't think it's me. I was scrolling through BFI player on Prime Video and saw this film, the description piqued my interest and I liked the screenshot that was used for it, coupled with a brief run time I thought that it might be a good watch.

It wasn't a complete waste of time, I enjoyed the cinematography and colour palettes, the house the film was set in felt in some parts like it could have been the inspiration for The Grand Budapest Hotel, with these vibrant reds and pale pinks. The actors were all fairly good but none of them were outstanding, I was however surprised that the score was as well done as it was, quite weird and out of place but I still liked this sort of futuristic synthy feel it had going. Technically I think it was all solid, the story though, lost me at points, although by the end I felt like I understood what was happening. Some scenes were of a very gratuitous nature, this is honestly dirtier than some p**n. There is full frontal, s*x and mas***bation and more at play here here and it results in probably the dirtiest thing I've ever seen, some would say this is brave and I'm sure there is an audience but personally it was a bit too hardcore for my boring vanilla soul. Still I think technically it was fairly solid and even if I didn't love it I still think it's deserving of a 6/10.
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4/10
How Beauty defeated the Beast
Galina_movie_fan18 November 2008
Another variation and improvisation on the famous and beloved children tale, La Bete (1975) aka The Beast tries to imagine (in very graphic and what may seem offensive and disturbing but in reality rather silly and comical way), what actually happened between Beauty and the Beast? I am amused by many reviews and comments that seem to look too deeply into this movie. I would not go so far as saying that it is a serious and dark exploration of such subjects as sexual frustration, longing, fulfillment, or satirical criticizing of the catholic Religion. I would not even call it a horror-erotic movie. It's more of the parody on all genres it touches or mentions even though it's got some shocking moments in all departments that sure will stay in your memory.

The long (way too long) scene between an Aristocratic young woman and the supposedly horrifying but the most laughable I've ever seen in the movies creature with truly impressive...well anatomy, is set to the clavichord music of Scarlatti and is hysterical. My husband and I both laughed out loud at the exaggerated details of the encounter. The moral of the scene is - beauty can and will defeat the monster. The question is - who is the target audience for the film? For an erotic picture, it is too verbose; for an art movie - it's got too many jaw-dropping scenes of sheer madness and I'd say an abrupt ending. IMO, the film creator did not mean for it to be a serious drama. As a parody of art house/horror/erotica, it is funny and certainly original. Have a good laugh and try not to look for some deep meaning. This story of the curious Beauties and the lustful Beasts certainly is not recommended for co-viewing with the children. The opening scene that may shock an unprepared viewer much more than the infamous scene of bestiality can be successfully used On Discovery channel for the program like "In the world of animals - mating habits and rituals of horses".
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8/10
Morbid and lustful fantasy fairytale
The_Void5 August 2004
If, like me, you like your films to be unique, and unlike the majority of other movies, then I wholly recommend that you check out The Beast. The film is a grotesque, erotic, fantasy fairytale that centres around a mythological 'Beast' that is rumoured to wander the grounds of a French mansion and lusts after women. The film is very daring with it's subject material, and that is something to give it credit for. The theme of bestiality is a definite taboo, and for good reason, I might add; but the film conveys it; straight and to the point. Like other films that handle a taboo subject at their centre, The Beast could have gone around it, and made us use our imagination to fill in the gaps, but Borowczyk didn't do that, and he is brave in that respect, especially as making a film like this will leave him open to all kinds of criticisms, but the fact that he went ahead with it, in my view, means a big thumbs up for the guy.

The film starts off with a sequence that sees a randy male horse mount a female. This opener puts an exclamation mark on the film and prepares the audience, in some ways, for the incredible, tour de force of eroticism that they are about to see. The scenes which see the beast mate with the woman are gratuitous and shocking, and are bound to offend many people (hence the reason it was banned for over 20 years), but these scenes are not merely an excuse for Borowczyk to shock the viewer; this film has a defining point. As said during the film; the only difference between man and beast is intelligence. Both man and beast have instincts, only man knows how to control them. The Beast explores this difference between man and beast through sexuality; the fantasy sequence in which the beast appears epitomises the control of human desire, and it is only when the central female character lets go of her control that she can see the beast. The film has strong themes of the age-old story of 'beauty and beast' weaved into it, and overall this is a shockingly morbid tale of lust, but not without a moral.

Many criticise the scenes around the film's shocking sex sequences for being boring, but these scenes are important to the film's story. Without these scenes, we wouldn't get to know the characters or the story of the beast, and, most importantly; the story of 'beauty and the beast' would not be able to have it's horrifying conclusion dealt to the audience, and as that is one of the key elements of the film; it would be a real shame. Besides that, Borowczyk keeps his audience entertained through these scenes, not with shocks, but with dialogue and the upper class persona of the family, along with the beautiful shots of the mansion's ground would not be seen, and therefore the stark contrast between that and the events later on in the film would not exist either.

Overall, The Beast is a shocking film. It's portrayal of a taboo subject and the shocking way it is portrayed will ensure that this film is not for everyone. However, if you can get over the film's shock, and embrace The Beast; what awaits is a skilful and beautiful piece of art that should not be missed by anyone that is willing to give this film a chance.
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6/10
Who writes this stuff???
haildevilman14 May 2007
First scene is 2 horses graphically mating.

Then we see a hairy guy get shaved because a lady is coming to marry him. He's a heir to a fortune you see. But one of his distant relatives may have been a sasquatch.

No, I'm serious.

The "rape" of his OTHER distant relative (the female) was also graphically shown...over and over again. Too many times. And too many close ups.

The wink-nudge about the too young boys and the priest being friendly to them will not be missed I hope.

Sex all over implied here. But the only sex scenes involved a bigfoot copy.

Judge for yourself.
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1/10
Needed 12000% less theriomorphic and botanical smut.
Otkon9 December 2021
I needed a chemical decontamination shower after watching this. And not sure I didn't end up on a watch list of some kind for having seen it.

It's not good. Not entertaining. It serves no purpose other than gratuitous (failed) titillation via sadly moronic and puerile scenes of artless fantastical fornication. I doubt even John Waters would find anything redeeming here.

It doesn't even work as a farce. And there's constant harpsichord for your aural enjoyment as well.

No. Just no.
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8/10
Heart-Warming Tale Of A Woman F!cking A Rat-Bear...
EVOL66611 January 2006
OK...this one's a weirdy....Honestly, I can't tell you all the inner plot-points of THE BEAST, cuz I started losing interest when nothing happened during the first 45 or more minutes - but just wait, it definitely does "pick up"...

The plot involves something about a monster in the woods that some French aristocrat chick screwed back in the day. Eventually you see "THE BEAST", which looks like a guy dressed in a giant rat-bear costume with a horse cock attached to it. The scene takes place with the aristocrat woman running around the forest looking for a lost sheep. The sheep ends up dead and the woman gets scared. THE BEAST pops up, rapes the chick and shoots 400 gallons of spunk all over her. Eventually the chick starts to enjoy the beast's "attention" which results in some pretty novel simulated sex scenes, including an unnervingly erotic foot masturbation scene where the woman jerks the beast off with her feet while the monster shoots more huge loads everywhere (yeah, I've got a twisted foot-fetish - so sue me....)...The whole film is told in flashbacks and long-winded dialog scenes that tended to be a bit tedious. A "shocking" but predictable ending concludes this extremely strange film...

THE BEAST is a film that I find kind of hard to rate. The cinematography itself is quite eye-catching and the sets, costumes and locations are elaborate. The plot is a little convoluted and seems to take it self awfully seriously for what ends up being such an unintentionally hilarious film about a chick boning a rat-bear. A good bit of tits, ass, and hairy 70's French bushes to help make up for the dull first half of the film. I have to honestly say, that if it weren't for the graphic scenes of the BEAST spackling all over the willing maiden, this film would have been a real bore - that is unless you like dull dialog and some graphic horse sex (the beginning has a VERY up-close and personal scene of two horses boning, including a pulsating and spunk covered female horse vagina...YUM!!!). But the BEAST sex scene is so strange and such a refreshing change from the rest of the film, that I have to say that those scenes alone make up for what otherwise would have been a real snoozer. I have to recommend this one to anyone who thinks they've seen it all - the BEAST rape really is out-there and something to be witnessed. Also recommended to any fans of 70's/80's sleaze films - this one ranks pretty high with them. Worth a look for you sick rat-bear beastiality lovers out there (like me)...8/10
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7/10
'twas Beauty who laid the Beast
foreverDSY22 July 2009
Warning: Spoilers
Wow. Uhm...well...wow! I guess I'll start with the plot. A betrothed woman (Lucy) arrives at the family home of her would be husband (Mathurin) in France, where they are awaiting the arrival of the Bishop or Cardinal or someone in the Catholic Church to marry them (to satisfy a will.) While waiting, young Lucy learns about a legend of a Beast who roamed the grounds centuries before. In bed that night, she begins fantasizing about the Beast and his rape-turned-consensual tryst with the former lady of the house. That's where it gets interesting! The plot is really pretty thin (and it seems to drag on for quite a while in the middle of the flick), but the filmmaker rewards (?) those who stick it out with a shocking and hilarious finale.

This movie isn't for everyone. If you're looking for great cinema, look elsewhere. If you're looking for a far-out movie about bestiality (that almost casts a sympathetic glance over the subject) this movie is for you! (If you have a weak stomach, don't be afraid of this one. Outside of some horse-on-horse action at the beginning, the 'deeds' are pretty cartoonish, IMO)
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2/10
Weirdly sex-negative, for a supposed erotic filmmaker.
mfcappie21 August 2005
This, and Immoral Tales, both left a bad taste in my mouth. It seems to me that Borowczyk is disgusted by sex, and these two films are cautionary tales about what will happen if you do have sex. As a film, it's not very well done -- some of the acting is truly epically bad (such as the "American" woman with the French accent). The young woman's sudden flip-flop from being anxious about the marriage to being interested (when it seems like it should have been the other way around), and the aunt's sudden realization of the young man's secret don't make sense -- they're not explained at all. I also didn't like how the daughter's relationship with a black man was presented as a sign of her family's perversion or predilection for bestiality. The central idea, the idea that there's this "sexy beast," if you will, that lives in the woods, could have been a foundation for a perverse but fun story, but instead is just used as a basis for a nasty, sex-negative, morality play.
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Unique
cwarne_uk3 February 2003
This is the only film I have ever seen which attempts to mix a fairy tale, a sort of comedy of manners and faked explicit bestiality. It is quite nicely filmed but appallingly acted. The climax (ah hem!!) is according to taste either hilarious, repulsive or erotic(????). Watch it if you are (a) a pervert (b) have an insatiable curiosity about the wilder extremes of film (c) a strong stomach. In todays homogenised marketplace it at least deserves it's place as a one of a kind gem. NB not suitable for (a) children (b) born-again christians (c) first dates.
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6/10
70's sleaze, even more than most.
Ky-D11 March 2005
Like most all 70's exploitation flick, this is not a good movie, but it is also oddly watchable.

The story concerns a fallen household that hopes to regain it's status by marring into a wealthy American family. The only problem is that there seems to be some kind of curse over the bloodline originating from the rape of an ancestor by a werewolf-looking thing.

Before you ask, yes, you get to see the rape scene. Porbably a lot more of it than most people would ever want to. Alegedly these scenes were shot to appear in the film "Immoral Tales", but were cut last minute. The rest of the film was shot to accommodate these scenes, which would account for the lack of interesting narrative.

Beastiality aside, the film offers up other perverse sights, such as a girl pleasuring herself with a rose bud (no innuendo there) and the lady of the house sleeping with the hired help.

Despite the fact that it is awfully slow at parts and can get really sleezy, I can still recommend a viewing if for nothing else than to just witness the oddity that it is.

5/10
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3/10
Over Rated Movie About A Guy Getting A Haircut
Steve_Nyland23 October 2006
Nope, I am just not going to get with it here. I refuse to go along with the program. Don't you supposed that perhaps this movie is just a tad over-rated? Look at the reader comments and their star ratings: Most are 6/10, 7/10 or better. I think this is an instance when the ratings may say more about the people rendering them than the movie itself, which is unique. How many other sex fantasies about simulated bestiality complete with horse couplings have become mainstream hits as catalog DVD titles? I watched this movie with a pervading sense of anticipation, expecting fireworks, and instead got someone popping a Gucci shopping bag. It looked great, but once the thrill had been spent even the twist ending didn't do much to save it.

The film's background story says it all: Director films about 25 minutes of borderline hardcore fake bestial sex for another movie, is informed the footage will not be appropriate, sets it aside, waits two or three years for a smattering of critical acclaim to build up, then constructs an entire feature around that 25 minutes, filming roughly 70 minutes of otherwise unrelated, excruciatingly boring footage and inserting the 25 minute chunk in as a dream sequence. That the 25 minutes of film in question is strikingly odd, original and shocking in a deliberate, calculated manner goes without saying. But we aren't here to evaluate that 25 minutes alone, we must consider the entire film, and ask ourselves why people are so enthusiastic about the movie? Or are they just enamored by it's background story and history of having been banned by people who were stupid enough to be offended by it?

Perhaps it is an anti-clerical agenda that appeals to them. Hating the western religions of catholicism and Christianity is one of the few remaining socially acceptable bastions of intolerance -- Just today it was revealed that the BBC routinely skews their broadcasts with anti Christian & anti Western sentiment in the furtherance of political correctness. You can say anything you want about the Bible, pedopheliac priests, the institutionalized cruelty of the church, and how much white men and their inhuman religions suck the dimpled skin off a golf ball ... But say one negative thing about non-westernized religions, and you are toast. This movie was tailor made for such a sentiment, with a wrinkly old dried up priest who has an entirely unwholesome on screen relationship with two pretty 14 year old French boys complete with inappropriate touching, fawning, fondling, fumbling, groping, and patting of the backsides. Ewww.

And then there is the horse couplings, photographed in such fetishistic closeup detail that portions of the film could be used as visual aids for a biology class on animal husbandry. Yes I understand the thematic relevance of the imagery -- large animal phallus's with a wealth of reproductive fluids just waiting to be unleashed like fire extinguishers -- but if I wanted to watch horses, you know, do it, I would like go live on a farm. Having their genitals in my face is about as entertaining as watching someone use a bathroom.

Is this movie just a sort of artsy diversion for social deviants? Probably, though I will grant the artistic execution of most of it, filmed in a kind of arty Euro detail that even has a dappled forest pond right out of a Monet painting, complete with a spanning arched bridge. And the ending (which even I managed to be surprised by) does sort of wrap it all up into a neat if distasteful package. But you have to remember that there are certain things that cannot be deconstructed for their design elements and many artists are guilty for exploiting them in their work to lend a sort of gravitas that would not have been achieved without it. That isn't fair, and even Clint Eastwood has fallen prey to the urge with his new movie about Iwo Jima. Whether or not his film is any good stands as a separate consideration from whether or not that battle was a noble cause fought by men who were heroes. The problem is that most people will not be able to separate out the two aspects of the movie and will be lining up to give it Oscars because of it's noble message -- not because it is a particularly good or original movie.

While it may seem like an odd parallel, I see one with THE BEAST: How can anyone not see the basic beauty of nature in the sight of two horses mating? And who cannot see the logical culmination of the repressed sexuality from fairy tales in the film's explosive set-piece where Beauty and the Beast finally do the nasty? Somehow I managed to miss both points, and am delighted that I have seen this film so that I can trash it as being what it really is: 25 minutes or so of eye opening over the top adult fairy tale imagery surrounded by 70 minutes of skull drainingly boring artsy-fartsy Euro Trash dreck about some guy getting a haircut, and a great ending. It's art for sure, but it sucks hard.

3/10
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6/10
Erotic encounters with an imaginary Other
netwallah6 September 2006
Warning: Spoilers
A naughty movie, nicely filmed and curiously intense. Two plots go along together, overlapping tenuously from time to time. The framing story tells of a family of decayed aristocrats in a large, handsome house, which they are in danger of losing to massive debt and bad luck. Their hopes lie in getting a young heiress to marry Mathurin (Pierre Benedetti) of the suave count Pierre de l'Esperance, which needs to be done within a certain time period to fit the conditions of a will, and the brother of the plaintive duc de Balo (Marcel Dalio), a cardinal, is supposed to officiate at the wedding. His secretary keeps hanging up the phone on de Balo, who's in trouble. Mathurin has never been baptized, so his father does it. The heiress Lucy Broadhurst (Lisbeth Hummel) arrives with her chaperone just in time to see a stallion mounting a mare, and she smilingly takes pictures, focusing on the prodigious equine member. In the house, everyone must wait for the cardinal. Lucy goes to bed for a nap and looks at her polaroids and begins to touch herself—and this is where the second plot begins, with her heated imagination. She combines in her mind a family story of an 18th-century ancestor, a beautiful woman, who encountered a beast in the forest, and he had his way with her, with her recent memory of the horse's enormous penis. She imagines what happened nearly 200 years earlier, and her bedroom gives way to a vision of Romilda d'Esperance (Sirpa Lane) playing Scarlatti on a harpsichord and watching a lamb stray from the meadow. She follows it into the woods, where the beast takes interest in her. He's never seen clearly; instead, he is rendered by shots of dark fur, black eyes, pointy nose, sharp teeth, clawed hands, and a prodigious member very much like the stallion's. Romilda is first frightened and then happily compliant, and the beast is strikingly hydraulic. In the second masturbation scene the Romilda-Beast liaison is even more mutual and graphic, with fountains of whitish fluid jetting from his dark body. Romilda evidently uses him up and she buries him in leaves and walks back to the château naked and satisfied. Meanwhile, things are very strange in the modern château: Pierre d'Esperance kills his uncle the duc, and Mathurin dies mysteriously, either by a fall from his bed or because he couldn't live long after being baptized. When his corpse is exposed, he has a darkly hirsute back and a tail, and one of his hands, bandaged throughout the film, is clawed like the Beast's. Lucy screams and runs away; the cardinal arrives at last, pockets the polaroids (for future reference), and says some things about the sin of bestiality. Unlike most aesthetically-inclined erotic movies, the fantasy sex is more coherent and accessible than the framing plot. It crosses boundaries, to be sure, but the action really takes place in the mind of the sexually hungry Lucy, who plays with the idea of transgressive sex in the safety of her bedroom, her eyes closed and her hands busy. The so-called "real" world is less safe, and more confusing.
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2/10
Rubbish and depraved nonsense
andyajoflaherty4 April 2023
A while ago I was searching the internet for lists of odd or obscure horror films, and came across this.. ahem "gem". Thing is, the write-up was so funny and intrueging that I just had to check it out. Oh boy...

La Béte (The Beast) I suppose you could say is a very VERY loose interpretation of the Beauty and the Beast tale. The film follows a French family on the brink of bankruptcy who are pushing for a marriage between the quiet son of the family and a wealthy English girl. The girl is on the way to the grounds to meet the family, and discovers bizarre secrets of not only the house but also the family she is due to wed into. Seems ancestors of the family have been murdered by a strange beast that roams the grounds, and although the father dismisses the tales as just that, as the film goes on it seems there may be some truth to this 'beast'.

To be honest, this film isn't very good. I should point out that this is EXTREMELY explicit, and is obviously counting on this to generate interest. However, that aside the film is quite boring, the performances pretty awful and I'm not sure if its a translation issue but the story makes zero sense. The beast effects are laughable and the whole thing is rather vile and is best avoided.
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10/10
Walerian Borowczyk's lustful and erotic masterpiece.
HumanoidOfFlesh25 April 2005
"La Bête" by Walerian Borowczyk is based on the short story "Lokis" written by Prosper Merimée.Lucy Broadhurst(Lisabeth Hummel),an American heiress betrothed to the son of an impoverished Marquis,arrives at the family's crumbling château and learns of a mythical ursine beast purported to prowl the nearby forest.It is fabled that a former lady of the house(Sirpa Lane)once engaged in perverse sex with the creature and Lucy finds herself consumed by dreams of the incident. "The Beast" is an art-house mix of surreal horror,explicit sleaze and porno.There's implied bestiality,assault and perversion in the priesthood,copious fake ejaculate smeared on bared breasts,masturbation with a rose and, most graphic of all,the eponymous beast toying with incredibly big phallus.Still this genuinely erotic film is wonderfully photographed and tasteless.The women here are stunningly beautiful and they are naked most of the time.Overall "La Bête" is a visual feast.Whether it be from the fetishistic attention to detail,or the visual motifs pregnant with information,Borowczyk's masterpiece should be watched with care and attention.A must-see for fans of European cult cinema.
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7/10
Beautifully Grotesque French Fairy Tale Erotica
Witchfinder-General-66612 January 2010
Warning: Spoilers
Regardless of what personal opinion one may have of Walerian Borowczyk grotesque yet beautiful gem "La bête" of 1975, one has to admit that this bizarre gem is an absolutely unique cinematic experience. Borowczyk erotic fairy tale was banned in several countries for a long time, and it is quite obvious why this controversial gem fell victim to stuporous film censors. "La bête" is a fascinating blend of intense and beautiful fairy-tale-like atmosphere, quite explicit eroticism and genuine weirdness that bravely refuses to take any compromise. The fact that beastiality (of sorts) is one of the film's central themes did certainly not help it with the censors, but it made it highly controversial and therefore known to a wider audience.

Pierre de l'Esperance (Guy Tréjan), the head of a French aristocratic family, has arranged for his somewhat demented son Mathurin (Pierre Benedetti) to marry Lucy Broadhurst (Lisbeth Hummel), the young and beautiful daughter of a wealthy English family. Due to an old curse, Mathurin's uncle (Marcel Dalió) is strictly against the wedding. When Lucy and her mother arrive at the French estate, Lucy immediately gets fascinated with a portrait of the 18th century ancestor Romilda (Sirpa Lane), and with an old book depicting bizarre drawings. The story soon descends into a bizarre sexual fever-dream... Without giving away too much, I can say that fans of exceptional cinema should not consider missing this film. As bizarre as it is, "La bête" is doubtlessly also stunningly beautiful in style, settings and cinematography. The fever-dream-like atmosphere is present within- and out of dream-sequences. The forest estate and the imposing family mansion are magnificent settings, and the beautiful score and incredible cinematography build an overwhelming atmosphere for this grotesque tale. The very explicit sexuality ranges from erotic (elegant female nudity, ravishing actresses) to seriously demented and even somewhat disgusting (close-ups on horses' genitalia while having intercourse,...); in either case it is not likely to be forgotten. The entire cast of "La bête" is fantastic and all involved deliver great performances in eccentric characters (some of which are seriously demented). The film profits from an exceptionally beautiful cast, be it Lisbeth Hummel in the lead, Finnish actress Sirpa Lane (who sadly died of Aids in 1999) as the ancestor in the dream-sequences, or the relatively unknown but particularly ravishing actress Pascale Rivault, who plays the aristocratic daughter who takes ever opportunity to have sex with a black servant in a cupboard.

I am intentionally not giving a full description of the most important parts of the plot as they simply have to be seen to be believed. Some scenes are among the most bizarre ever caught on film, the scenes with the eponymous 'beast' definitely being among them. Certainly not everybody's cup of tea, but very highly recommended to fans of controversial and unusual cinema. A true cult gem!
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3/10
a bad joke
versus755 December 2005
Warning: Spoilers
this film was shrouded in scandal for so long that it became a very sought after item...the outrage, the mystery, etc. it had everything to be a great piece of film-making, but ultimately fails in every extent. it's a terribly bad comedy, a pathetic horror movie, a lame erotic film.

the 2 disc DVD includes a gorgeous booklet with stills, interviews, essays on bestiality, etc. as well as an extensive interview with the more-than-pretentious director. for those who have heard about it but never seen it, the package will seem fantastic until one actually sees the film. disc 1 contains the edited film, badly translated to English but with good visual quality. disc 2 contains the director's cut, in an awful transfer, in french.

what can I say about the actual beast? a hand puppet of Kermit the frog would have been more effective and shocking.
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8/10
This movie is wayyyyyyy out there!!
Tom-27514 March 1999
Youth, sexuality, and the French countryside -- one of the more unique films you're ever going to see. If you can see it that is, no mean feat considering how hard it is to find copies of it (a combination of scarcity and censorship.) It's sometimes erotic, sometimes disgusting, and occasionally funny. A trifle boring also in the middle, but all in all you can't call yourself an aficionado of bizarre film until you've seen this one at least once.
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3/10
Little more than bad porn.
pijoeflorida29 February 2004
This movie is little more than poorly-made, fetish porn, and this is saying a lot considering the similar crap that was made in that era. This was recommended to me by friend as a "unique film experience." He was right. I suppose he meant that as a joke. Not disgusting, not even that shocking. Just mediocre acting and poor attempts at shock art. A little bit of camp value, though I don't believe the makers of this film intended this. And yes, as a previous reviewer mentioned, it's sex with a guy in a bear suit. Don't spend a lot of money on this. Try to borrow it, if you must see it. Or contact me, I'd be happy to sell you my copy for half price.

I may have to see another of this particular director's films, as he seems to have a certain following. But if it's anything like this, I will again regret another 2 hours of my life gone forever.
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La Bête(The Beast)
Scarecrow-8826 May 2008
Warning: Spoilers
I could just imagine director Walerian Borowczyk giggling behind the camera at how his film skewers and jabs Catholicism(..preferably priests, hinting at their lascivious secrets)and graphic displays of bestiality with this hairy beast banging a duchess in the dreams of a wealthy heiress, Lucy Broadhurst(Lisbeth Hummel). Pulling no punches and knowing no boundaries, Borowczyk allows the viewer to watch a grand display of this monstrous beast's semen oozing pecker, growing longer as it sets it's horny sights on this poor female running for her life in the wilderness, attempting to escape. Throwing caution to the wind, we watch as the beast rips away her clothes until the woman is almost completely naked, before positioning her and engaging. Then, the icing on the cake is her beginning to enjoy it. Folks, this kind of sequence obviously isn't for the easily offended and is as tasteless and raw as my description sounds. Lucy, having the dream about this encounter, gets so worked up she wishes to have sexual intercourse with the man she plans to wed, a pagan named Mathurin(Pierre Benedetti) whose "true nature" will soon be revealed at the end after a tragedy opens up a secret that has plagued the I'Esperance family for two centuries. Through a book created by a member of the I'Esperance, a (in)famous duchess, the Marquis(Marcel Dalin) of the I'Esperance manor for which Mathurin lives with his overbearing father Pierre(Guy Tréjan)introduces Lucy to the tale of her vanquishing of a beast. Inside a case, the Marquis even shows Lucy and her Aunt Virginia(Elisabeth Kaza)a torn piece of clothing, worn by the duchess, with claw marks. Through this knowledge comes the dream which comes to Lucy that night, with her so heated by the experience she is overwhelmed with ecstasy, watering down her naked body(underneath a see-through, thin gown)eventually masturbating with a rose! Is the dream Lucy has a real ordeal? Does this ordeal plague the I'Esperance family? The film shows how Pierre awaits the Cardinal's seal of approval for Lucy and Mathurin to wed(..this is needed if Pierre's son is to become tied to her inheritance)while a local perish priest(..and his choir boys, for which he keeps VERY close to him)hangs around ready for his part in carrying out the marriage. But, certain circumstances will possibly throw a kink in the works for Pierre can never truly escape his family's past mistake.

Besides the graphically displayed sexual sequence of a beast ravaging a female, there's the opening scene of Mathurin watching, almost in a hypnotic state, as a male horse, hung, is guided into the "breathing" vagina of a female horse. You have the local perish priest, and his affectionate display for his two male choir boys(..always having them nearby with his arm around one or even kissing another). You have the Cardinal finally arriving, finding a photo Lucy took of the male and female horse mating, slipping it into his pocket. You have Lisbeth Hummel's rose masturbation and long stretches with her buck naked, yearning for the warm embrace of a man. So much is here, I felt, to shock it's audience into a frenzy. I think there's a specific audience who'll really enjoy this(..even aroused, maybe), but I'm not the biggest fan of watching horses copulating, or some beast ravaging a woman. But, for a film with such shocking material, it's so well made, I can't say it doesn't have it's technical merits. This film is so audacious and daring, I must admit that it's the kind of cult film certain to gain admirers along the way. I will finish by saying that the director goes out of his way to plant a continuing image in the viewer's mind, the stiff, semen oozing penis of the beast as it pursues the female victim.
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