My Wacky Movie Collection: Walerian Borowczyk's The Beast (La Bete)

I just noticed I say 'anyway' and 'anyhoo' a lot.

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• Walerian
• Borowczyk's
• The
• Beast
• La
• Bete

[vanityfair713]

Although porn is th opposite of art... porn has no message, hence the label.

[1schreient1]

@vanityfair713

I use the term "art porn" because it seems like Borowczyk was attempting to make an erotic-artistic film, but wound up going off track. A lot of the sex in the film feels more about titillation than about advancing the plot (it's been a while since my last viewing, but I do recall a lengthy scene where one of the characters gets off by rubbing a flower into her labia, and we are treated to close-ups of the event. maybe I need a movie guide to understand the significance of this

[1schreient1]

@1schreient1

scene). I have another film in my collection, a South Korean indie movie called LIES. LIES is about an obsessive sexual relationship (and it has several graphic sex scenes) and how it effects the lives of the 2 main characters. A huge chunk of that movie is sex scenes, and I can't label it as pornographic. The sex in LIES is not filmed to look "sexy" (it's really uncomfortable to watch).

[AnteMuralis]

La Bete is not porn!!!

[FantasmaLuna]

I saw this movie at 15...I've never been the same since...I've since then become a very twisted person.

[ralism1]

yaaaaawwwwn

[mstipich1]

This polish director is an artist in genuine sense. Poet of labia...as he was labeled...Should every sex explicit material be classified as pornography, its matter of personal standpoint.

[vanityfair713]

Haha, yes-- reading the box is very nearly essential for this one. Terrific video.

[borowczyk76]

For anyone interested out there, La Bete was actually supposed to be a fifth short film for Boro' Immoral Tales (which is far superior to this film) which he expanded into a feature. The whole squirrel-with-a-gooey-strap-on scene is actually the original film around which the whole fallen aristocratic family and their legendary heritage story was built around.

Boro only made two or three more interesting films before completely succumbing to the softcore porn business.

[borowczyk76]

As a fan of Boro (hence the nick), I have to agree La Bête is probably the moment in the director's career when he completely lost his marbles. This film IS completely off-the-wall and it's difficult (if not impossible) to tell just how seriously the man sees his work. The trouble is his background before this film which is definitely more avant-garde and artsy so it's difficult to completely push the film aside as some furry art porn made by a pervert.

[MsGoogaMooga]

This is not a porn movie, it`s a comedy with a message.And the message is, that the most dangerous thing on earth for a man or beast is the insistable lust of a woman.