• Wide Release
• Director: Walerian Borowczyk
• Written by: Walerian Borowczyk
• Running Time: 98 minutes
• Language: French
• MPAA Rating:
• Cast: Sirpa Lane, Lisbeth Hummel, Elisabeth Kaza, Pierre Benedetti, Guy Tréjan, Roland Armontel

This is one of those movies which, were it not for the Internet, I would probably still be looking for a copy. I'd first heard about in a film book called IMMORAL TALES by Cathal Tohill and Pete Tombs which was about EuroTrash sex and horror movies and had a full chapter on Walerian Borowczyk and his movies. I'd only seen one of his movies at the time, his Jekyl/Hyde opus, BLOODLUST, and although the version I had seen was severely cut from what I had read about in IMMORAL TALES, it was just the kind of sex and violence I apprecitated in my cinema. So I figured I'd have a definate appreciation for some of his other films. I think what made me want to seek out and watch La Bête was this still in the book of a woman atop the beast holding the monsters penis. It's a massively huge ugly thing and it's dripping ejactulate. I think I needed to see just how this huge thing would fit in this woman. Yeah I know, pretty twisted, but that's the way I roll. And this was not an easy movie to find either. There were a number of different versions, all with various degrees of cuts made to them. And I am totally opposed to censorship, so I wanted the full uncut version. After checking all sorts of sites and comparing run times I finally found one from the good folks at MIDNIGHT VIDEO. Unfortunately, there was no full English or even English subtitled uncut version yet availible, so I ended up with a VHS mostly in french with some English and with Scandanavian Subtitles. My French is pretty bad but I still followed the story, because fortunately one of the characters is English so they speak some English in some scenes. Now, of course, thanks to DVD you can get a totally uncut version and have all the optional subtitles you want. The plot of the movie goes something like this. This English heiress comes to an estate to marry this strange French dude (pre-arranged I guess). She sees some horses being mated and takes some polariods to mastrabate with later. As she explores the estate she sees a painting of a woman and there seem to be a lot of subtle references to bestiality. While in bed sleeping and of course rubbing the ole honeypot, she dreams of this woman in the painting being chased and raped (if you can rape the willing?) by a large wolf/bear-like beast with a tool like a baseball bat. In the end she learns the shocking family secret.This movie is pretty graphic and leaves little to the imagination. There is some gore with a little lamb getting ripped apart and lots of sex of all (and I do mean all) manner and description. It has to be seen to be believed.... Despite it's erotic elements, this movie comes off much like a fairy tale in it's presentation. And this is not surprising as this was originally intended by Borowczyk to be a segment in his IMMORAL TALES anthology. It's a loose take on the Beauty and the Beast theme. Still, it is definately not for children. But neither is this a complete sleaze-fest. The sets and costumes and cinematography say Euro-Arthouse. It's still up in the air to me as to whether or not this movie does have any redeeming social value. It seems Borowczyk is trying to make some statement about the beastial nature of man as a sexual animal but then the hot women and the enormous amounts of ejaculation from a giant beast-penis seem to distract from this.  Either way you look at this movie, art-house masterpiece or euro-trash sleaze classic, this movie is definately worth a watch for anyone who wants to see something truly unusual. I couldn't find a English speaking trailer (that wasn't too graphic to put on this site) so you'll have to settle for this German DVD trailer. If you don't speak German, you can imagine how I used to feel watching this movie with only Scandanavian Subtitles to get me through the non-English parts.