An American heiress, Lucy Broadhurst (played by Lisbeth Hummel), arrives at the French estate of her fiancé, Mathieu de l'Esperance. She is expected to marry into the family, but the family is plagued by a curse.
Includes the notorious introductory footage of horses mating and the full, unedited dream sequences that are the film's centerpiece.
Borowczyk shoots this beast not as a monster but as a tragic force of nature. The famous, shocking ten-minute dream sequence where Romilda is mounted by the creature is less about shock value than about the surrender of social pretense. In an era of second-wave feminism and sexual revolution, "La Bête" asks: what happens when the liberation of desire has no human shape? la bete aka the beast uncut fra 1975avi better
For decades, viewing La Bête meant navigating a minefield of heavily expunged versions. The British Board of Film Classification ( BBFC ) banned the film outright for over 20 years, while other territories hacked up to six minutes out of the runtime. Censors routinely removed:
1. The Origin of La Bête : From Contes Immoraux to Standalone Feature An American heiress, Lucy Broadhurst (played by Lisbeth
The film was heavily cut to fit into more mainstream theaters or to comply with censorship boards, which weakened the narrative connection between the surreal prologue and the main story.
Most commercial versions available in the 1990s and early 2000s were missing the full, uninterrupted dream sequences that define the movie's psychological weight. The "uncut" tag signified that this file contained the complete, unedited French theatrical cut, restoring the transgressive footage that Borowczyk intended the audience to see. 2. The "Fra" (French) Audio Preference Borowczyk shoots this beast not as a monster
was heavily censored or banned due to its graphic sexual content. Seeking an "uncut" version (typically the 98-minute runtime) ensures the inclusion of the following key sequences: Refused Classification The Beast (1975) - IMDb
In the 2020s, the phrase “better lifestyle and entertainment” often connotes wellness, productivity, and curated leisure. However, La Bête proposes an alternative: liberation through confronting the monstrous, the erotic, and the irrational. The film’s plot—a wealthy American heiress, Lucy, arriving at a French château to marry into a decadent family haunted by a legendary beast—unfolds as a dreamlike deconstruction of civility. The “beast” is not merely a physical creature but a metaphor for repressed desire.
