Léa Seydoux and George MacKay star in the new film from Bertrand Bonello (House of Tolerance, Nocturama, Coma).
An audacious, ambitious and dreamy sci-fi of epic scope, loosely inspired by Henry James’s novella, The Beast of the Jungle, and playing off contemporary concerns about a world ruled by technology gone rogue.
In the near future, emotions have become a threat. Gabrielle (Seydoux) decides to purify her DNA in a machine that will plunge her into her past lives and rid her of all strong feelings. She then meets Louis (MacKay) and feels a powerful connection to him – as if she had always known him. Circling each other through time, their story spans three distinct periods: 1910, 2014 and 2044.
Building on the core ideas and concerns of his previous films, Bonello’s arresting, intriguing, ravishingly romantic film crosses time and space to depict a dystopia in which people are so afraid of rejection that they eliminate the very possibility of love (their avoidance of difficult emotions recalling Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind).
“Master stylist Bertrand Bonello combines Henry James and AI as he stretches from Belle Époque Paris to LA and 2044
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FT
“Léa Seydoux leads a mesmeric blend of sci-fi, horror and romance”
Independent
“Léa Seydoux and George MacKay deliver an acting masterclass in this Lynchian art installation of a film”
Evening Standard
“Though the story feels so attuned to current-day neuroses, its themes are timeless.”
Empire