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Released by: Cult Epics
Released on: 11/27/2001
Director: Walerian Borowczyk
Cast: Sirpa Lane, Lisbeth Hummel, Elisabeth Kaza, Pierre Benedetti, Guy Trejan
Year: 1975
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The Movie:
If you see only one ejaculating Sasquatch movie this year, make sure this is it! A truly strange piece of Euro-trash history, La Bete is definitely in the running for one of the more unusual European sex films from the 70s that I've seen.
The early scene of horse copulating sets the stage for this tale of freaky sex. The Esperance family are a group of wealthy French land owners in the Victorian era, but unfortunately, their financial powers are dependant on a shaky arranged marriage between their son and Lucy Broadhurst, a young English noblewoman en route with her aunt in tow from London.
While all this is going on, the local priest shows up to baptize the youngest family member, and the younger sister is getting it on with the black servant.
Eventually, Lucy is made to feel at home in the household, and welcomed with open arms. This leads her to encounter a torn corset hanging in the house that belongs to Romilda, a family ancestor. When Lucy comes across her diary, she discovers that Romilda had some 'interesting' encounters of a beastly kind in the woods out back. And once she finds out about it, things suddenly take a change for the kinkier and Lucy's life will never be the same again.
Filled with strange sex scenes involving a man in a furry suit with a prosthetic rubber cock that's consistently shooting white goop around, there's very little left to the imagination in this film. I'm not altogether sure if it's meant to be taken seriously or
not, but the movie actually works as a comedy, albeit a sick and depraved one, and has some pretty funny moments stuck in between the weird sex.
There is also some really good direction on display in the film, and the cinematography by Bernard Daillencourt captures some of the racier scenes as well as some of the slower more relaxed moments. While the artistic and moral value of La Bete is questionable, there's no disputing that even today, nearly 30 years since it's release, it's still a shocking movie that any self-respecting freaky-film-hound owes it to him or herself to see at least once.
Video/Audio/Extras:
The video is presented in non-anamorphic 1.66.1 and it looks pretty good. There is a fair bit of grain and speckles here and there, but for the most part, it's not bad and colors seem to be reproduced quite faithfully and skin tones look natural.
Presented in an English dubbed Dolby Digital Mono mix, the sound here is fine. It would have been nice to have the French mix provided on a second track, but seeing as both versions were dubbed afterwards anyway, neither one is really more authentic than the other.
There are no extras to speak of.
The Final Word:
This is probably the best version we're going to see in North America, and Cult Epics is to be commended for bringing this genuinely weird film to fans.