The Beast: what exactly is going on in Bertrand Bonello’s film? The answer is not easy to give, but neither is it relevant; this is one of those films that is so fascinating to watch that objective details can become superficial. The main reason is Léa Seydoux, who plays a woman who keeps bumping into a man in her life. Or lives, as the story takes place in 3 time periods: present, early XXth Century Paris, and a near future where something happened that put artificial intelligence in charge. The characters (because while having the same name, they act very differently) have complex emotional landscapes, and Seydoux is quite good at portraying that. George MacKay plays the 3 versions of the man and makes them markedly different as well; the portrayal of the present-time version is both funny and terrifying. Production designer Katia Wyszkop creates three attractive looks for different time periods. Cinematographer Josée Deshaies captures the action nicely, and editor Anita Roth creates moments of undeniable terror and emotional discharge.