What is it about?
For 25 years, in a huge nightclub, a man and a woman watch a mysterious event together. From 1979 to 2004, from disco to techno, a story, a love story, a story of obsession. The “case” will eventually be revealed, but in a much more tragic way than expected.
When cinema offers itself as an experience, an intense moment where we allow ourselves to be carried away… this is how we should understand this curious beast in the jungle, a new production by Patrick Chiha. Don’t go with a narrative framework with an explanatory beginning and end, but with a temporal bracket that takes us imaginatively through the years. Beast in the Jungle is seen as a journey through time, charming, intriguing and seductive, as are its two main actors, Tom Mercier and Anais Demostier.
One of the strong elements of this story is its setting: a nightclub, a place of all possibilities and all imaginations that creates a unique and musical world. “It was when the idea of a night club came to me that I dared to dive into this project. Its director Patrick Chiha clarifies in the press kit. This almost unique setting makes the film a kind of documentary about a nightclub from 1979 to 2004. A nightclub is a euphoric space of eternal present, eternal youth, and a melancholic space of time. Infinite, because beyond reality, everyday life. life. This is a theater where you dream of life more than you live it. So it was the perfect space to set the story of May and John, who are locked in a quest for the absolute..”
A selection from the filmmaker’s previous achievements. Patrick Chiha really signed if it was love, a hybrid film, at the intersection of fiction, documentary and performance, fascinating and hypnotic. A mix of dance scenes and other documentary scenes showing choreographer Giselle Wien at work or sharing the secrets of the dancers.
Music features heavily in The Beast in the Jungle, as does a crowd of dancers. This soundtrack evolves over time, from disco to electro. The voice of the film’s narrator, Beatrice Dahl, also helps create a singular world.
The atmosphere created, we can now inquire about the meaning of the film. Patrick Chiha explains in the press kit. “This is the story of a man who is waiting for an extraordinary event that will change his entire life. He asks the woman to wait with him, and this adventure tragically overtakes them. For me, the story of this couple has the power of a myth. It reminds us of our condition as humans always torn between present and dream, reality and fantasy. The mystery of the monster in the jungle has haunted me for a long time.“
and add:It deals with something that no one talks about, but everyone admits: that terrible feeling of not losing one’s life, precisely because one hopes for a life beyond life, an extraordinary life, a predictable life in the future. I wanted to make a film out of it, because I’m sure that this tension, between the present and fantasy, between real life and dream life, is also related to cinema.“
Thus, the beast in the jungle is presented as a myth, mysterious and open to different interpretations, leaving room for the viewer’s imagination. Note that this is a very loose adaptation of a story by Henry James that has already been adapted specifically for the theater (and directed by Benoit Jacco) with a version by Sammy Frey and Delphine Seyrig. La Bête, Bertrand Bonello’s next film, will also be loosely inspired by this novel.
Source: Allocine
Rose James is a Gossipify movie and series reviewer known for her in-depth analysis and unique perspective on the latest releases. With a background in film studies, she provides engaging and informative reviews, and keeps readers up to date with industry trends and emerging talents.
