Beauty And The Beast

Director Bertrand Bonello talks his vision of an artificial tomorrow in The Beast

- JACK SHEPHERD

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.”