Annual Top Films Lists

Top 100 Most Anticipated Foreign Films of 2022: #25. Bertrand Bonello’s La bête

Published on January 13, 2022

La bête

As we explored earlier on our countdown, Bertrand Bonello segued to micro-budget Coma while awaiting the greenlight for his ambitious triple era pronged ninth feature. Produced by Les Films du Bélier’s Justin Taurand, Bonello’s La bête (The Beast) will star Léa Seydoux and Gaspard Ulliel (Saint Laurent reunion), production is expected to begin this April.

Gist: Freely inspired by The Beast in the Jungle by Henry James, in the near future where emotions have become a threat, Gabrielle finally decides to purify her DNA in a machine that will immerse her in her previous lives and rid her of any strong feelings. She then meets Louis and feels a powerful connection, as if she has known him forever. A melodrama crossed by the genre, which unfolds over three distinct periods, 1910, 2014 and 2044.

Release Date/Prediction: If we were a betting man we’d put a couple of € for a Palme d’Or competition showing in 2023, but this has been in prep mode for several years now, and sure they’d need to be swift in post for an appearance in 2022 and Venice showing.

Eric Lavallée

Eric Lavallée is the founder, CEO, editor-in-chief, film journalist and critic at IONCINEMA.com (founded in 2000). Eric is a regular at Sundance, Cannes and TIFF. He has a BFA in Film Studies at the Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema. In 2013 he served as a Narrative Competition Jury Member at the SXSW Film Festival. He was an associate producer on Mark Jackson's This Teacher (2018 LA Film Festival, 2018 BFI London). In 2022 he served as a New Flesh Comp for Best First Feature at the 2022 Fantasia Intl. Film Festival. Current top films for 2022 include Tár (Todd Field), All That Breathes (Shaunak Sen), Aftersun (Charlotte Wells).