Borowczyk's adult update of the Beauty and the Beast legend has acquired a hefty reputation as an explicit, titillating exploration of sexuality and desire.

Wrapped in Bernard Daillencourt's suitably soft-focus photography, Borowczyk's film is at turns perverse, laughable, and compelling. The performances are uniformly awful and time has not been too kind to the ragged creature effects, in essence, a man in a rather ragged gorilla suit. At times the film is also undeniably offensive, pandering to male fantasy (the point of view shots of women being stalked in various stages of undress is especially distressing) as is the pseudo-rape fantasies the film attributes to its female characters. Further, the black characters are base caricatures given lingering associations with bestial, crazed sexual appetites.

Yet for all its many faults - and to be fair time has not been particularly kind to the film with its flashes of almost Benny Hillesque sauciness - the film does exert a bizarre fascination and contain moments of genuine eroticism. A distinctly surreal, unsettling viewing experience and certainly unlike anything else to currently be found in cinemas.

bbc.co.uk