Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #10537 in DVD
• Released on: 2001-11-19
• Rating: Suitable for 18 years and over
• Aspect ratio: 1.66:1
• Formats: PAL, Widescreen
• Original language: English, French, Italian
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 93 minutes

DVD Description
DVD Special Features:
Chapter points.
Picture Gallery.
Borowczyk filmography.
Ratio 15.9 Widescreen.
Borowczyk's short film "La Maree" ("The Tide")

Synopsis
Walerian Borowcyzk's controversial 1975 film casts the tale of BEAUTY AND THE BEAST in a bizarre, erotic light. This release features the full uncut version.

From the Back Cover
The Beast is an erotic masterpiece from the most controversial exponent of the genre - Walerian Borowczyk. This sexual fantasia caused outrage when it was first screened in 1975 and was refused a certificate until 26 years later.

A modern day version of "Beauty and the Beast", The Beast is the story of a young American heiress, Lucy Broadhurst, betrothed to the mentally unstable heir to a French aristocratic dynasty. Dark rumours abound about a mystical 'beast' and on the night of her wedding Lucy is visited by strange and erotic dreams.

Set in a beautiful gothic chateau, the film features hilarious couplings, not so pure clergy and unwholesome secrets shot in a superb brushstroke style, climaxing in what has to be one of the most erotic, and at the same time hilarious finales of all time.

Customer Reviews

Nuts!
A thread about this film on imdb is titled "This film is effing Nuts" and that sums it up really!

I understand the "Beast" sequence was filmed first and was originally meant to part of "Immoral Tales" but the director thought he could build a feature film around it. I don't think he succeeded.

It has a bit of everything, French farce, anti-clericalism, equine sex scenes along with familial murder. However I found the whole thing a bit forced.
For example we are expected to believe that the (very attractive) heiress continues to be interested in the son, even though he has shocking table manners and can't string 2 words together! His father had written the sons letters to her that had persuaded her to come over but she should have copped on when she met him in person.

The slightly mysoginistic theme is continued as we are expected to believe that the woman being "ravished" by the beast begins to enjoy being penetrated by his huge member, and suffers no physical damage. I know it's meant to be part of a dream but still.

The rest of the film does look as it they were filmed at a different time to the "Beast" scenes as they don't blend well at all. The mad Benny Hill style music over the rape scenes make it seem even more ridiculous.

The director certainly succeeds in shocking, which one suspects was the main aim of the film but I think he succeeds at liitle else.

Having said all that the film is worth watching at least once because you're unlikely to see anything quite like it. Not for the faint hearted though!

like Wagner, unforgettable moments and dreadful quarter-hours
This film takes the lid off Beauty and the Beast. That's not a bad idea. But it has a contrived plot: what is a vapid American blonde doing in a creepy French chateau? Why is she marrying a man she has never met and whose language she does not appear to speak? This sort of weak background makes the whole film look just like an excuse for a bit of soft porn.
However there are some unforgettable moments. The horse-breeding scene in the yard has great sound; the famous forest scene also has great sound: I have never heard a harpsichord so ominous. And the scene where the pale daughter of the house is writhing on a bed with a black servant is visually memorable -- apart from being comic, because the young children have been locked in the cupboard for the duration, and we know this coitus is going to be interruptus anyway, as the servant's duties call.

Extremely Bizarre Cult Film
Walerian Borowczyk's explicit and insane la Bête (The Beast) is a directly adult reflection of the sexual undertones in many fairy tales. There are segments in la Bête that are unflinching enough to be deemed pornographic but they are done in such a silly and shocking way we cannot assume that Borowcyzk's goals are to titillate. I mean come on, the film opens with a close-up of a female horse's private parts and a male horse jumps right into the mix soon thereafter. There is also a tremendous amount of (human) nudity in la Bête and while gratuitous, it does seem to be appropriate within the film, even though it isn't necessarily erotic. I don't think it is possible to categorize this movie and that in and of itself is a strength for me. From beginning to end, I had no idea what to expect.

The film takes place in the Esperance house that is awaiting a wedding between the family's son and Lucy. The family is full of chaos and everyone seems to have something to hide. Lucy becomes fascinated with the family's notorious ancestor Romilda, who apparently had a sexual encounter that Lucy reads about with a very well endowed beast in the woods nearby. Lucy imagines the experience Romilda went through graphically, and she almost seems to fantasize about the ordeal. We see the sequence almost in its entirety. It consists of Romilda (Sirpa Lane) running around gradually losing her clothes with some harpsichord music playing and eventually she succumbs to the beast's advances and gets it on with his giant prosthetic phallus. It is graphic enough that it would be nearly impossible to say it isn't shocking, but it is funny enough that the audience will laugh uncomfortably until it concludes. You certainly won't forget this sequence and there are several more memorable parts before and after.

Just because someone may care I won't reveal how la Bête ends. Walerian Borowcyzk actually does seem to have a way with making movies. His other films are for the most part straight-forward erotica but he has the ability to make beautiful shots and here he even puts together an interesting, albeit strictly comedic, commentary on human and animal sexual impulse. I don't want to mislead anyone here; the priorities of this movie are by no means it's potentially significant insights. I don't know what Borowcyzk's intentions are but la Bête is certainly one of a kind.

The Cult Epics three disc release is worth owning if you enjoy rare and unique films. Especially ones that push the limit like this one. We have the dubbed version and the director's cut in here, as well as a great stills gallery and a hilarious trailer that shows almost the entire sequence with the beast and Sirpa Lane, but with a black bar over the graphic footage...as if we don't know what could be happening. On the third disc we have over one hundred minutes of silent behind the scenes footage and several other interesting features. The book that comes with this edition is probably the best aspect of the Cult Epics release. It has stills of some of the more noteworthy content and explains the film in far better detail than I have. This is recommended for collectors and definitely for those of us not easily offended.