Beauty And The Beast
SFX UK|June 2024
Director Bertrand Bonello talks his vision of an artificial tomorrow in The Beast
JACK SHEPHERD
Beauty And The Beast

TWENTY YEARS FROM now, in Bertrand Bonello’s vision of the future The Beast, artificial intelligence has taken control after a mysterious event changed the course of history. To remove any chance of another calamity, the robots have created a machine that helps humans live out their ancestors’ past lives. They thus become emotionally numb – and therefore stable – in the present day.

The message is clear: if we’re not careful, technology will eat away at what makes us human. “It’s not that much science fiction,” the French filmmaker remarks. “It’s something we are going through now. I mean, technology, it’s a tool, and humans must be the master of a tool, not the contrary. And now it’s getting a little scary.”

Bonello – known for his idiosyncratic dramas Nocturama, Saint Laurent and House Of Tolerance – started writing the script in 2017, back when AI was yet to become such a hotly debated topic. By the time The Beast played at Venice and Toronto festivals last year, following months of writers’ and actors’ strikes, the film seemed a little too prescient. “I was working with scientists, specialists in AI, on the script,” he says. “I was aware of many things, many dangers, but I really thought it would be many years away.”

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