Preceded by-La femme fleur (Jan Lenica, 1965): The Flower Woman. "No flower is excessive on the threshold of the twentieth century. Woman shuts herself up in places where cement, stone, and metal have taken the forms of the forest" (André Pieyre de Mandiargues). Written by de Mandiargues. (11 mins, Color animation, English commentary, 16mm) (La Bête). Walerian Borowczyk's feature films, beginning with Goto, Island of Love (1968), incorporate the themes of sensuality and punishment found in his short works. (The Polish artist is one of the foremost film animators, having worked with Jan Lenica (Dom), Chris Marker (Les Astronautes), and created fearful masterpieces in Renaissance and Les jeux des anges, among others.) The Beast derives in part from a version of "Beauty and the Beast" originally intended for the compilation film Immoral Tales but excised from that film because of the furor it caused, and thereby hangs a tale: when it was incorporated into this contemporary erotic fable as a flashback scene, Borowczyk's taste was questioned anew. The film proper is "a comedy of sexual manners, contrasting the elegance and pomp of life at (a) chateau with the moral squalor and hypocrisy of its inhabitants in a way that reminded one critic of a cross between Feydeau and Buñuel..." (John Wakeman, ed.,World Film Directors). The Beast who, legend has it, haunts the estate turns up in the feverish fantasies of the Countess-fantasies of rape and seduction that ultimately pin the Beast's tail on his human counterpart.