The Beast-Man

Émile Zola — the founder of naturalism in literature, author of the twenty-volume epic "Les Rougon-Macquart" — "the natural and social history of a family during the Second Empire." The wife of the post office chief, Séverine Rubo, is tormented... by memories of a cunning crime in which she involuntarily became an accomplice to her unloved husband. The police have not found the culprits, but from now on, family life becomes completely unbearable for the young woman. It is at this moment that her attention is drawn to the locomotive engineer Jacques Lantier. He is handsome, charming, and favorably differs from his colleagues in the highly paid profession with a clean and ascetic, almost monastic way of life. He seems to be the exact opposite of the petty, cruel, and vile Rubo. However, in trying to seduce Jacques, Séverine has no idea that she is playing with death. For Lantier is a maniac, desperately trying to control his all-consuming thirst to kill beautiful women...