With this loose adaptation of Henry James’s novel, The Beast in the Jungle, Bertrand Bonello films the reincarnations of a woman and her encounters with the same man during three different eras. Each time their relationship fails by the same emotion: fear. The director establishes a link between the first cellulose dolls, mass-produced at the beginning of the century, the frozen beauty of top models, and the future people who seek artificial happiness with empty eyes. Playing a French bourgeoisie woman in the 1910s, a model in Los Angeles in 2014, and a character in a world where emotions don’t exist in 2044, Léa Seydoux proves once again that she is one of the most gifted actresses of our time. Bertrand Bonello creates mesmerizing images reminiscent of Dario Argento, David Lynch, and David Cronenberg and moves fluidly between period drama, contemporary thriller, and science fiction. The Beast is also a philosophical conte that embodies all the fears of our time. (SEO Seunghee)