The Beast

Léa Seydoux wanders through a maze of past, present and uncertain future in Bertrand Bonello’s audacious blend of period drama and conceptual crystal-gazing.

Few European directors have the provocative imagination of France’s Bonello (Nocturama, Zombi Child). In his latest, a Henry James story is the springboard for a leap into the science-fictional unknown. Seydoux plays a fin de siècle socialite entangled with an admirer (George MacKay). But that’s just one of her lives in this visually inspired, synapse-sparking exploration of fate and identity.