The Beast

An outrageous classic of erotic cinema, Walerian Borowczyk’s playful and subversive fantasy finds a horny heiress courting the ravenous desires of a wild beast.

An outrageous classic of erotic cinema, Walerian Borowczyk’s playful dismantling of bourgeoisie norms concerns Lucy, an heiress destined to marry the deformed son of her late father’s best friend. Upon discovering the myth of a ravenous beast that stalks her fiancé’s estate, Lucy becomes lost in a dream world of sexual fantasies involving the insatiable creature.

Initially prepared as a segment of Borowczyk’s portmanteau film Immoral Tales (also on BFI Player), the director was forced to excise the sequence and subsequently expanded it into the feature-length The Beast.