It’s an especially fun movie from a director and cast who are clearly having a good time allowing themselves to let loose.

In other words,this film is a surreal ride.

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

It's a feast for the eyes. But what really makes this dramedy work is the acting.

Notorious Borowczyk film, often dubbed 'art porn'; its infamous reputation is derived from prolonged scenes in the woods where the beast graphically despoils the maiden. None of this is coy or erotically suggestive, at some point a malformed penis ejaculates in front of the camera.But that vision is properly internal, a sexually-charged dream. The girl who's having it has been brought in a lavish mansion to marry the son of an aristocrat. There is no love between them, not even the chance to tease it out. It's all a ploy devised from the parents, both driven by ulterior motives.It is all a maddening, feverish coupling between these two notions; animal impulse seething deep inside the soul and how far social appearances, the world of organized cruelties, can be bent to mask or sublimate the impulse in more acceptable games of power or money.So this is the monster's function, a monster nurtured with the bile of emotional pains. It articulates purely in terms of images about a state of mind. Structurally however, it's all dependent on how well the filmmaker can shift this internal vision around in the level of reality in order to probe into those unspoken corners of the soul that elude us in real life. Cronenberg and Zulawski - another Polish expat - both went on to deliver similar but better films because they had a grasp of this; the monster itself was our in-sight of the inverted world. In The Fly Cronenberg also riffed in and out of the classic Beauty and the Beast story, like Borowczyk does here, but as part of an overall prosthetic worldview powered by a damaged mind. In Possession, even better, every increasingly depraved exchange and utterance was a wound of the heart. Here, the monster stuff is its own secluded world.This predates those films, and might have been considered cutting stuff at the time, but is mostly unwieldy now. The greatest contribution of the Polish to cinema is the flow of sliding narratives; there is little of that here, except as we wander around the house and woods. But when we reach the grounds of the mansion, our first sight is of horses coupling.Of course the official representatives from god reach there too late, and only to provide their moral decree.

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!

The Beast is Polish filmmaker Walerian Borowczyk's most infamous work. Based on the story Lokis by Prosper Mérimée, its combination of anti-bourgeois satire, graphic pornography and heavy beastiality themes make for some shocking viewing.American heiress Lucy Broadhurst and her aunt Virginia have travelled out to the French countryside as Lucy is to be married to Mathurin de l'Esperance, a French aristocrat. As the ladies wait to be introduced to Mathurin (he is in the midst of being baptised) they explore the old château and Lucy comes across some ancient artwork depicting women coupling with animal-like beings. Lucy is soon formally introduced to her groom-to-be and they sit down to dinner.As night falls everyone retires to their respective chambers and Lucy falls into an ongoing erotic dream / fantasy wherein she witnesses a woman in the forest being stalked then raped by a wolf-man-horse hybrid, she awakes aroused and checks in on her husband to be. Finding him dead she panics, wakes her aunt and they disappear into the night.The Beast is either a strangely erotic art-house masterpiece or a sickening display of bestiality worship scantily concealed by it's lofty pretensions. Straight off the mark the opening scenes of graphic horse copulation set the tone. It is also then that we are introduced to the leering Mathurin, who is intently "supervising" his horses mating. When the priest turns up to baptise Mathurin he has two little altar boys with him that are obviously his lovers, yet another of Borowczyk's stabs at organized religion (see Behind Convent Walls).The underlying themes of the human animal and its primal urges are pretty blatant, especially in a scene where Sirpa Lane follows a cute, innocent lamb into the forest only to see it torn to shreds by the "evil" beast before he rapes her.It could definitely be said that the first hour of the film is just a set-up for the notorious beast scenes as it does kinda drag (especially for those who already know what's about to follow) and very little happens aside from Mathurin and Lucy finally meeting and a running gag regarding Mathurin's sister and the black servant constantly being interrupted mid-coitus. Although for those who are bored by the first hour it is definitely worth the wait because once the beast is on the scene it's all go! As mentioned above the beast is some bizarre kinda wolf-man-horse hybrid, the horse part being his gargantuan member with which he attacks Sirpa Lane in the prolonged festishised rape sequence - this scene really has something for everyone: foot fetishists, tit-men, rape-men (hah!), bukkake fans, animal lovers, it's all in there.The Beast is an utterly surreal piece of avant garde film-making that is a must-see for fans of Euro-cult cinema and boundary-pushing foreign films in general.

Unreal "movie", what were these people on?? A mix of French Upstairs Downstairs, mating horses,porn (not suggested, its pretty full on for a film) & bestiality with a bit of Benny Hill music & chase scenes thrown in, its sounds crazy & its even more so to watch. **spoiler** It plods along in a tedious fashion for quite a while,.... then a Lamb does a runner, prompting woman in period dress to run off after it, she goes into the woods where she is set upon by an erect "penis" attached to a man in a bear/rat manky suit, I put it like that as its obvious the "penis" is in charge & gets way too much screen time, ejaculating for the most of it, anyway, in a nutshell, it turns out she liked a bit of bear/rat tadger & thats about it, the rest is just padding. **end spoiler** A film made to shock & offend, thus getting talked about, any publicity is good publicity I suppose,a waste of time really, but the "main event" has to be seen to be believed, its hard to imagine that anyone thought it was a good idea as they filmed it.