Bertrand Bonello on the Beast (2023)

Bertrand Bonello is one of the few working filmmakers for whom arthouse is genuinely not a cliche — because his films refuse arthouse conventions as deliberately as they refuse mainstream ones. The Beast, with Lea Seydoux, moves through three time periods and several genres, asking what it means to be a feeling person in an era that rewards the erasure of feeling. In conversation with Hugo, Bonello discusses how Lynch and Jarmusch seep into his work unconsciously, what Seydoux's acting approach requires of a director, and why his films keep returning to collective social anxieties rather than individual psychology.

By Hugo Emmerzael

Film Journalist · Celebrating Cinema