Ep. 239: Bertrand Bonello on The Beast, Experimenting with AI, Making Melodrama, Reading Henry James

The Last Thing I Saw

Ep. 239: Bertrand Bonello on The Beast, Experimenting with AI, Crafting Melodrama, Reading Henry James, and more Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host, Nicolas Rapold. Bertrand Bonello’s latest film The Beast has been melting minds with its time-skipping saga of star-crossed lovers and strangers played by Léa Seydoux and George Mackay. Inspired by a Henry James story, The Beast spans three different time periods and pairings: a married woman and a suitor in the 1910s (Belle Époque), an actress and a madman in 2010’s California, and a woman facing a fateful choice in a not-too-distant future where artificial intelligence promises to remove individual trauma. I chatted with the restless French auteur (Nocturama, Saint Laurent) about the struggle for connection across these stories, being tempted by AI, directing Mackay and Seydoux, and more. The Beast is in theaters now, and Bonello’s previous feature, Coma, will have its first U.S. theatrical run on May 17. Please support the production of this podcast by signing up at: rapold.substack.com Photo by Steve Snodgrass