La Bête dans la jungle

The Beast in the Jungle
It begins at the end of the 1970s, amidst the glittering nights of a club as a place of endless (im)possibilities and the timeless clockwork of a city. This is where John and May are waiting for an extraordinary, all-changing moment to occur. Around them, everything is loud and in motion, while they hold out in silence. Twenty-five years pass as they follow world events on their cathode-ray tube television set: Mitterrand’s term in office, the AIDS crisis, the fall of the Berlin Wall, and 9/11. John’s obsessive watching and waiting for this one big event to happen becomes a monster, and May is his long-suffering accomplice. From 1979 to 2004: from disco to techno. Fashions, movements and drugs change as they dance against time which passes by more and more quickly. Lost among others yet alone together, the two continue to observe the world from the sidelines. If only it were love.
Patric Chiha transposes the couple from Henry James’s short story “The Beast in the Jungle” to the club, and contrasts their fateful waiting with the ultimate feeling of being-in-the-moment and the dancers’ hedonistic desire to dissolve time in everlasting choreographies.
by Patric Chiha
with Anaïs Demoustier, Tom Mercier, Béatrice Dalle, Martin Vischer, Sophie Demeyer
France / Belgium / Austria 2023 French,  Subtitles: English 103’ Colour World premiere

With

  • Anaïs Demoustier (May)
  • Tom Mercier (John)
  • Béatrice Dalle (La Physionomiste)
  • Martin Vischer (Pierre)
  • Sophie Demeyer (Alice)
  • Pedro Cabanas (Monsieur Pipi)
  • Mara Taquin (Céline)
  • Bachir Tlili (Yacine)

Crew

DirectorPatric Chiha
ScreenplayPatric Chiha, Axelle Ropert, Jihane Chouaib, based on the short story of the same name by Henry James
CinematographyCéline Bozon
EditingKarina Ressler, Julien Lacheray
MusicYelli Yelli, Dino Spiluttini, Florent Charissoux
Sound DesignMikaël Barre
SoundAtanas Tcholakov
Production DesignEve Martin
CostumesClaire Dubien
Make-UpLila Vander Elst
ProducersCharlotte Vincent, Katia Khazak
Co-ProducersCassandre Warnauts, Jean-Yves Roubin, Ebba Sinzinger, Vincent Lucassen
Co-ProductionFrakas Productions, Lüttich
WILDart Film, Wien

Produced by

Aurora Films

Paris, France

www.aurorafilms.fr www.aurorafilms.fr

World Sales

Patric Chiha

The filmmaker with Hungarian and Lebanese roots was born in Vienna, Austria in 1975. He studied fashion design in Paris and then film editing at INSAS in Brussels. His debut feature film Domaine, starring Béatrice Dalle, premiered at Venice in 2009; his documentaries Brüder der Nacht and Si c’était de l’amour screened respectively in the 2016 and 2020 Berlinale Panorama. La Bête dans la jungle is his fifth feature film.

Filmography (selection)

2004 Casa Ugalde; short film 2005 Les Messieurs (The Gentlemen); documentary 2006 Home; short film 2007 Où se trouve le chef de la prison? (Where is the Head of the Prison?); short film 2009 Domaine (Domain) 2014 Boys Like Us 2016 Brüder der Nacht (Brothers of the Night); documentary 2019 Si c’était de l’amour (If It Were Love); documentary 2023 La Bête dans la jungle (The Beast in the Jungle)

Dates

Fri Feb 17 18:30

Zoo Palast 1

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Sat Feb 18 12:00

Haus der Berliner Festspiele

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Sun Feb 19 10:00

Cubix 7

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Mon Feb 20 19:00

Cubix 2

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Sat Feb 25 15:30

Cubix 9

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