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All Bets On La Bete
by Debra Hyde
03/06/03
From the moment Walerian Borowczyk's La Bete begins, we're told in no uncertain terms that this movie's about sex. Right off the bat, a black stallion's erect penis and a mare's throbbing cunt greet us. And then we're thrown into a detailed bout of horse fucking, complete with the stallion licks his mare clean when he's done. (Gentlemen, take note.)
If only National Geographic specials were this good.
La Bete is, however, more than an in-your-face sex romp. It's a tale of nature versus intellect, of bashing French bourgeois ways and papist repressions, and a fractured fairy tale to boot. You might also be surprised to know that it dates from the 1970s.
Yes, you heard me right. It's not a spanking brand new film. Just a spanking good film.
There's a story behind that, of course. His erotic vision formed by directing Emmanuelle, Walerian Borowczyk created La Bete as an 18-minute short for the anthology film, Contes Immoraux (Immoral Tales, ), only to find it was considered too offensive for the larger work. So Borowczyk created a full-length film around its original premise.
Even then, La Bete never saw theatrical release in America in the 1970s, and where it did appear in Europe, it was as often scorned for being indulgently pornographic as it was praised for its erotic flights of fancy. (British authorities, in particular, chopped the film senseless in censorship frenzy.) Borowczyk became something of a pariah, but he went go on to create one sex film after another, always dancing that fine line between sleaze and art. Today, some classify his films as classy sexploitation.
But what's it doing here, now, in art theaters? Near as I can tell, someone's remastering European art house sex movies, then marketing them both on DVD and distributing them to American art house theaters. Savvy move.
Especially if you want to see a beast's giant dick leaking constantly in near climax. But I'm getting ahead of myself here.
La Bete retells the tale of Beauty and the Beast in modern day France. Young heiress Lucy Brodhurst (Lisbeth Hummel) arrives at the chateau de l'Esperance, where she is, by arrangement, to marry de l'Esperance heir, Mathurin. Legend has it that an ancient curse forces a beast rises from within the family ranks every two hundred years and Lucy is fascinated with both the enduring legend and a more recent tale of a young countess who was allegedly abducted and killed by the beast when last it rose. Plenty of plot ploys clue us in that Mathurin (Pierre Benedetti) is on the cusp of becoming the legend's next beast, but rather than scare Lucy away, she's simply fascinated and drawn to her bridegroom's less than civilized social deportment.
Surrounding all this, we're constantly reminded that sex is nature of this film's beast. The attending parish priest cuddles and kisses his altar boys, the house servant is constantly trying to get it on with his master's daughter, and even Lucy's pinched guardian aunt claims, "Beautiful France always lived in lust."
Everywhere Lucy snoops, she uncovers hints of the beast: An erotic sketch of a nude woman hidden behind a painting - with a fierce, phallic wildcat atop her prone body; a copy of Voltaire's Maid of Orleans, complete with an illustrated phallic-prominent demon in its pages; even miniature sketches of the beast in what's reported to be the countess's own scrapbook. Here again, she is simply drawn even further into fascination.
As night descends, the sex romp begins in earnest. Lucy retires to her bed where she dreams explicitly of the countess's dilemma. Pursued by the beast, the countess (Shirpa Lane of Nazi Love Camp 27 fame) finds herself increasingly bereft of clothing until, hanging from a tree, she's just about buck naked. The beast comes upon her, quite literally. His face meets her cunt as her feet tap dance on his constantly streaming, horse-like cock. Beast meets pussy in a damsel-in-distress scene that's so farcical, it's literally art house meets schlock horror meets high camp. Figuratively, at a nudist colony. Where an orgy breaks out.
Yet there's some absolutely stunning cinematography that turns the explicitly ludicrous into lyric art. Lovely shots of tits and pussy as well as women writhing in desire and seeking relief from their sexual appetites coexist with the beast's schlock horror appearance and campy cock. Female sex and masturbation has never looked this artful and lurid at the same time; Borowcyzk undoubtedly loves the female form.
And yes, there's plenty of gratuitous nudity, but beware: It's all gorgeous pie and tits au naturale. Not a shave or a breast job in sight.
While nature runs its lusty course, intellect schemes and bourgeois greed does in the hopes of the French family. Murder destroys the prospects of marriage. (If you can look beyond the T&A, read every document in the film for clues as to who did whom in and why.) Death everywhere, Lucy flees the chateau, her dreams in ruin.
But ours are, by contrast, complete. The real beauty of La Bete lies in its celebration of female desire. Women are only as powerless as they are repressed, Borowczyk tells us, and points to the seat of a woman's power: Her orgasm. Indeed, the young countess, contrary to legend, actually vanquishes the beast - drains him dead by virtue of her feminine insatiability.
How cool is that?
Today, La Bete looks downright charming and quaint compared to today's triple-X level of explicitness, yet it's obvious enough to keep an adult rating. You'll see more sex here than you did in Stanley Kubrick's blink-of-an-eye, Eyes Wide Shut, and a fair more intelligent story than in Roman Polanski's Diary of Forbidden Dreams, a sex romp from the same era. Best of all, you don't have to have a savvy art house theater nearby to enjoy the film. La Bete's available on DVD (C.A.V Distribution, ASIN: B00005RYKT, $24.95).
Get it, cuddle up naked with a loved one, and who knows? It might inspire you to have your own sex romp. Schlock beast costume, optional.
This article previously appeared at the now-defunct Yes Portal website as part of its news and entertainment coverage.
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