Free adaptation of The beast of the junglea short story by Henry James published in 1903 where a man, fearing a tragedy, misses out on the happiness of sharing his life with the woman he loves, The beastan anticipation film mixed with horror by Bertrand Bonello, transposes our concerns and our fears in the face of artificial intelligence which invades the different spheres of our lives.
“When I started writing about artificial intelligence, I worked with a researcher. I had a fairly clear idea of the dangers, but I was far from suspecting that the year the film was finished, artificial intelligence would be one of the big topics of the year. Artificial intelligence is a tool and the human being must control the tool, and there, we have a real fear that the tool will be the master of the human. So it’s an anticipation film that becomes quite contemporary,” says the French filmmaker we met during his visit to Montreal last fall during the Festival du nouveau cinéma.
PHOTO ALAIN ROBERGE, LA PRESSE ARCHIVES
Bertrand Benello
In fact, last year, artificial intelligence was at the heart of the demands of the strike of screenwriters and actors in the United States who feared, in the near future, to be replaced by it. In the process, Tom Hanks and Zelda Williams, daughter of the late Robin Williams, denounced the use of AI to reproduce the voices of deceased actors.
“I had fun with ChatGPT. I asked him to write a Bertrand Bonello-style screenplay and in five or six seconds, he produced four pages of treatment. I don’t want to say it’s great, but it’s not bad. In three years, it will be a million times more powerful. Obviously, it’s really scary, but we know very well that, particularly in terms of medicine, it’s going to be prodigious. Afterwards, there are questions of an ethical, moral, political nature, and that’s where we are terrified, especially on the political side because the whole world would have to agree on a kind of moral charter… but reaching an agreement with Russia or China is not easy. »
Camped in France and the United States, in three different eras, 1910, the year when the flooding of the Seine caused a major flood in Paris, 2014, before the #metoo movement really took off, and 2044, in a future not so far away, The beast features a woman, Gabrielle (Léa Seydoux), who wants to get rid of her emotions in order to be in tune with the times.
PHOTO CAROLE BETHUEL, PROVIDED BY MAISON 4:3
George MacKay and Léa Seydoux in The beastby Bertrand Bonello
“Besides the flood in Paris, what I liked about 1910 was taking a moment when, four years before the war, we still believe that the 20the century will be completely luminous, explains Bertrand Bonello. In the part taking place in 2014, all the speeches made by the male character are from Elliot Rodger, author of a killing motivated by his hatred of women in 2014. And for 2044, I wanted a concrete future. I wanted it to be a future that we visualize because it’s tomorrow and, with a little luck, we’ll still be here. »
In order to live without emotion, Gabrielle must purify her DNA. During the process, where she will relive parts of her past lives, she will reconnect with Louis (George MacKay), the man of her life. Every time she meets him, Gabrielle fears an imminent catastrophe: “Fear is a strong emotion. The beast, it is a plea to stay alive. Emotion, whatever it is, reminds us that we are alive. »
“The film is possible again”
Presented at the Venice Film Festival last year, The beast almost didn’t see the light of day. Encountering several difficulties in obtaining financing, Bertrand Bonello postponed writing the script in order to shoot Zombie Child (2019) and Coma (2022). Co-produced with Canada, the film ultimately obtained seven million euros (around ten million CAN).
“To be able to make two films in a row, one at 250,000 euros, the other at 7 million, that’s my real freedom. If I only made films costing 250,000 euros, I would be frustrated, and only films costing 7 million, I would find it burdensome. I like the variations, these big differences. »
Then came the pandemic in 2020. And in 2022, the accidental death of Gaspard Ulliel, who was to play Louis alongside Léa Seydoux. It is therefore the British actor George MacKay, notably seen in 1917by Sam Mendes, who took up the torch.
“The presence of George MacKay brought a big new color to 1910, where English and French mix, where there is something more European that I found quite Henry James, whose short story is the starting point of the film , but which is very far from it. And above all, it took me away from Gaspard; I couldn’t have replaced him with a French actor because there were too many possible comparisons. There, that’s something else. It’s the same movie, but it’s something different. For me, George made the film possible again. »
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Who is Bertrand Bonello?
Born in Nice in 1968, trained in classical music, Bertrand Bonello accompanies artists on stage before successfully turning to cinema.
In 1998, his first feature film, Something organicfilmed in Montreal, his adopted city, is screened at the Berlinale in the Panorama section.
In 2014, three years later The Apollonides: memories of the brothel, Saint Laurentwhich will be his greatest success in theaters, is selected in competition at Cannes.