Animal instincts
>> The Beast is a bizarre, wondrous oddity

by MATTHEW HAYS

Nasty family dynamics and repressed sexual fantasy collide in The Beast, Walerian Borowczyk’s brilliantly strange feature, a film that has known numerous censorship woes since it was first released in ’75.

Gazing upon it now, it isn’t too difficult to figure out why stuffy censors might have taken offence. The director had received some positive notices for his Immoral Tales in the early ’70s, a series of erotic explorations into the sexual subconscious underpinnings of various fairy tales. Left out of the final cut, reportedly, was a 20-minute rape-seduction sequence inspired by Beauty and the Beast. Borowczyk took that short and spun a feature around it, a story of a very, very messy family and the planned nuptials of one unruly son with a gorgeous British lass. Unfolding much like a vague cousin to a Bunuel film, this film is fuelled by often hilarious dialogue and a skewering of upper-class values.

Meanwhile, its sexual elements are outrageous. The film opens with lengthy shots of one horse humping another (packed with plenty of close-ups of the animals’ genitalia). This sets us up for what’s ahead, as The Beast’s signature sequence—and by far the best part of the film—has a young human woman pursued by a hairy beast in the woods. He rips off her clothing, bit by bit, and we see his hairy pipe grow and spew semen as he races after her in hot pursuit. In what can perhaps best be described as Sasquatch porn, the namesake of the film’s title catches up with and has his way with the woman, who finally seems to enjoy the climax.

This is an extremely odd film, recalling both Jodorowsky (in terms of its surreal imagery and use of landscape) and Makavejev (in particular W.R. Mysteries of the Organism, in terms of its juxtaposition of stark sexual imagery with social/political commentary). No first-date movie, it’s nonetheless imperative viewing for any aficionado of erotic underground cinema. :

The Beast opens Friday, Sept. 27 at Cinéma du Parc

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