The Beast

La bête

Walerian Borowczyk’s The Beast makes its intentions clear right from the very start, setting aside all decorum, any inhibition, every taboo. The head of a noble family in dire financial straits thinks his luck has changed when Lucy, the daughter of a wealthy businessman, agrees – for reasons of her own – to marry his son, who has physical deformities and mental disabilities. However, almost immediately after the two families first meet, and as a series of illicit fantasies strike Lucy in her dreams (are they dreams?), dark secrets of the aristocracy quickly become one with primal legends, melding the dream world with reality. Sex scenes that caused a stir, eliciting embarrassment and shock, while also beating a path for films such as Andrzej Żuławski’s Possession; an ingenious mix of gothic lore and French erotic farce; unstinting scorn for the repression of carnal desire, for stifling run-of-the-mill morality, and for the hypocrisy inherent in propriety – these are just some of the distinctions meriting a film that never fails (and never will fail) to provoke, and to trigger a reaction.
Screening Schedule

No physical screenings scheduled.

Direction: Walerian Borowczyk
Script: Walerian Borowczyk
Cinematography: Bernard Daillencourt, Marcel Grignon
Editing: Walerian Borowczyk
Sound: Michel Laurent, Jean-Pierre Ruh
Music: Domenico Scarlatti
Actors: Sirpa Lane, Lisbeth Hummel, Elisabeth Kaza, Pierre Benedetti, Guy Tréjan, Roland Armontel, Marcel Dalio, Robert Capia, Pascale Rivault, Hassane Fall, Anna Baldaccini, Thierry Bourdon, Marie Testanière, Stéphane Testanière, Jean Martinelli, Mathieu Rivolier, Julien Hanany
Production: Argos Films
Producers: Anatole Dauman
Costumes: Piet Bolscher
Production Design: Jacques D’Ovidio
Executive producer: Anatole Dauman
Sets: Alain Guillé
Make Up: Odette Berroyer
Format: DCP
Color: Color
Production Country: France
Production Year: 1975
Duration: 98'
Contact: Tamasa Distribution

Walerian Borowczyk

Walerian Borowczyk was born in Kwilcz, a village in Western Poland, on October 21, 1923. Between 1946 and 1951, he studied painting and sculpture at the Kraków Academy of Fine Arts. During the early 1950s, Borowczyk moved to Warsaw where he established himself as a designer of film posters. In 1957, together with another poster artist, Jan Lenica, he directed his first professional short film, Once Upon a Time. The following year, Borowczyk emigrated to France. During the early 1960s, he produced short films and commercials. He made his feature film debut in 1967, with Theatre of Mr and Mrs Kabal. During the early 1970s, he directed Immoral Tales, a portmanteau film concerning sexual themes which brought his work to the attention of a wider audience. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, Borowczyk developed a startling body of work in a variety of genres: short films, features, documentaries, and animation. In addition to designing the sets and editing many of his films, Borowczyk also created the props and designed posters. During the 1990s, Borowczyk returned to graphic work, invented a technique called “pulverography” and also authored a number of books, including a collection of short stories, Anatomy of the Devil, and a book for children, Dumb Animals. He died in Marly-le-Roi, near Paris, on February 3, 2006, aged 82.

Filmography

1959 The Astronauts (short)
1964 The Games of Angels (short)
1969 Goto, Island of Love
1973 Immoral Tales
1975 The Beast
1975 The Story of Sin
1979 Immoral Women
1981 The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Miss Osbourne
1987 Emmanuelle 5