Bonello also tells me he watched Max Ophüls’s The Earrings of Madame de... (1953) with his lead Léa Seydoux to help her prepare for the role... I wanted Léa to have a character with a real arc and for me, Max Ophüls is the master of that. I think The Earrings of Madame de... is the height of melodrama, a very powerful film, because a woman goes through different periods of her life with a single piece of jewellery. I wanted Léa to have that, a very grand character who goes through time.
Films That Influenced The Beast
