Different distortions in your cinema are existential, corresponding to your motif of actors seeing themselves mirrored in these simulacra of humanity: store mannequins in “Nocturama,” masks in “Home of Tolerance,” inanimate dolls throughout “Cindy: The Doll Is Mine,” “The Beast,” and “Coma.”
I do know, I do use them loads… It’s filming a face whose expression you don’t know, which is each mysterious and scary. In case you take a look at a doll’s face or see somebody carrying a masks, it’s about what’s behind that. For instance, certainly one of my favourite scenes in “The Beast” is when Léa Seydoux is within the salon de thé and [impersonating] the doll; her face simply stops shifting. For a few seconds, you say, “Wow, she’s very lovely.” And after one other 5 seconds, you say, “She’s f—ing freaky.” I actually like this since you have no idea what she is considering. I like this sensation.
And the dialogue in that scene instantly addresses the peculiarity of sculpting emotion onto a mould. On some degree, we acknowledge this uncannily “impartial” face, nevertheless it lacks emotion and humanity. Gabrielle is haunted by a premonition of disaster, and the dolls recur—together with within the 2044 part, the place a “doll” robotic companion is performed by Guslagie Malanda—in a manner that feels linked to this premonition, in addition to to the movie’s overriding themes of worry and love.
It actually comes from the Henry James novella. That is the argument of Henry James that I took. What’s nice in regards to the thought of premonition, of an indication that precedes one thing, is that you simply don’t know what the beast is. You don’t see it, and it’s not an precise beast, so you’ll be able to put numerous fears into the phrase “beast,” simply because the characters can put numerous fears into the phrase “disaster.” One thing goes to occur. It’s an incredible argument from Henry James, that one thing can occur and so everyone seems to be in worry, like animals, what’s going to occur. And that makes you very alive. And, in fact, the ending is unhappy as a result of the beast is the worry of affection. And once they notice this, it is too late. However that is the essence of a melodrama: it is too late. The concept that we would await one thing to occur till it’s too late could be very tragic.
Once I was slightly misplaced in my story, I at all times went again to the novella. Although it is quick, and even after I took its arguments, every thing is in it. All the things. Once I was engaged on the 2014 part, and the worry of affection on this interval, I went again to the novella: the worry of affection, and the beast, what would that be in 2014? And I used to be interested by the loneliness of this era. She’s linked to a pc, and he with the iPhone, however there may be loneliness. In 2014, the worry of affection made me take into consideration incels. However I at all times got here again to the novel, even when I didn’t take a lot of it. What I took was the argument that one thing goes to occur. It’s one of the best argument doable: every thing can occur, so every thing is feasible within the thoughts of the viewers and the characters.