Le Bete 1975 Page

By August, the village had given it a name: Le Bête de 1975 — not a wolf, not a bear, not a lynx. Something older. The priest said it was a punishment for the discotheque they’d opened in the old abbey. The schoolteacher said it was a rogue military experiment from the base near Draguignan. The children, who were always the first to see things, said it lived in the abandoned railway tunnel where the mistral wind sounded like a voice whispering numbers: 1975, 1975, 1975 .

Ultimately, La Bête is a film about the inevitable return of the repressed. The de l'Esperance family tries to hide their sins behind religion and social decorum, but the Beast in the woods—their dark family secret—refuses to stay buried. Walerian Borowczyk created a film that is simultaneously ridiculous and profound, repulsive and alluring. It stands as a unique artifact of 1970s cinema: a daring, unclassifiable work that uses the language of the erotic fairytale to expose the animal that lies beneath the skin of humanity. le bete 1975