28th BIFF 'The Beast' explores simplicity amid complexity, director says

French director Bertrand Bonello speaks during a press conference at the KNN Tower Building, Friday, for the screening of his film "The Beast" at the 28th Busan International Film Festival (BIFF), which is held from Oct. 4 to 13 in Busan. Courtesy of BIFF

BUSAN ― French director Bertrand Bonello describes his latest genre-bending film as his most straightforward work to date.

“The film is quite complex in its storytelling but I think I've never been so simple in the feelings I wanted to express. Because it's simple feelings,” the director said during a press conference at the KNN Tower Building, Friday, for the film’s screening at the 28th Busan International Film Festival (BIFF).

The film, "The Beast," was invited for the “Gala Presentation” section for this year’s festival, held from Oct. 4 to 13 in Busan.

Inspired by Henry James' 1903 classic novel "The Beast in the Jungle," Bonello's sci-fi romance spans three different time periods ― 1910, 2014 and 2044. The narrative follows the ill-fated romance between Gabrielle (Lea Seydoux) and Louis (George MacKay), as they reincarnate and meet in these different eras.

“Fear and anguish are very frontal in the film; much more than I ever did in fact. So the film is complex but at the same time, I think it's my simplest film because the feelings expressed are so simple, so basic and so important simultaneously," Bonello said.

In each era, the couple's romance falters, driven by the pervasive emotion of fear.The 1910 setting takes place in Paris just before the Great Flood, where Gabrielle is portrayed as a talented pianist, while in 2014, the story unfolds in Los Angeles on the cusp of a major earthquake, with Gabrielle working as a model and actor. In 2044, artificial intelligence takes control of people’s lives. In a society where emotions are perceived as a threat, Gabrielle contemplates undergoing a procedure to wipe out her emotions, which leads her to share worries about her idea with Louis.

A scene from the film "The Beast" / Courtesy of BIFF

For the first time, Bonello centers his film around a female protagonist as he wanted to tell a mixed-genre story through the lens of a female character.

“One of the desires for the film at the beginning was to do it for the first time a film, in which the main character would be a female, which I've never done. Besides melodrama, all these genres of movie, which are science fiction and slasher, are mixed with one female actor of Gabrielle,” he said, adding that he wanted each period to have its own catastrophes.

“The period 1910, which is a little after the novel was perfect for me because it's the beginning of the 20th century, when it's still a moment we were thinking that the 20th century would be like peaceful and full of progress … (yet) four years after, it's darkness. In every period, I wanted to mix the intimate catastrophe with a collective catastrophe.”

Bonello elaborated on the challenges of blending multiple storylines and time periods. The director connects the dots between the first cellulose dolls, mass-produced at the beginning of the century, the frozen beauty of top models and the future people with empty eyes, seeking artificial happiness, through three distinctively different settings of eras.

“All the difficulty was to make three stories in a way: the three different stories, (circling to) only one and three different characters, only make one … That was very interesting for me to work on,” he said.

The director expressed he hopes the movie will take the audiences on an emotionful ride.

“I would like the audiences to sit and let themselves go on this trip, even though sometimes you might (feel) lost. I wanted the film to be an emotional treat, full of sensation. And for that, you have to sit and abandon yourself a little,” he said.