Coralie Fargeat’s films are not for the faint of heart: Blood and Gore play an absolutely central role.
There were so many of them in the body horror film “Revenge” (2017) – her first full-length feature – that, on the set in Morocco, extra amounts of fake blood had to be constantly made using ingredients shipped from France.
Fargeat’s new title “The Substance” – starring Margaret Qualley, Demi Moore and Dennis Quaid – promises to be no less violent and is one of 22 contenders for the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival, which opens on Tuesday .
Born in Paris, Fargeat was involved in film from a very young age, making little movies with her toys and developed a passion for genre films thanks to her grandfather, who let 12-13-year-old Coralie see films. Her parents were considered too violent: the series “Rambo”, “RoboCop” and “The Fly”.
Later, while finishing her university studies at Sciences Po in Paris, one day she noticed a film being shot in the courtyard of the university and asked the assistant director for an internship. He interned on the set of his next film and spent the next two years doing other internships to learn the ropes.
Releasing a series of critically acclaimed short films, he presented ‘Revenge’ at the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival to much attention.
Fargeat spoke about her Cannes competition title, her love of violent cinema and her feminist agenda in a video interview from her Paris apartment. The discussion has been edited and condensed.
How does it feel to be in competition at Cannes with your second film?
For every filmmaker, Cannes is a kind of myth, the temple of world cinema. I am very honored and very moved. All the directors I grew up with and admired had world premieres at the Cannes Film Festival: David Cronenberg, David Lynch, Quentin Tarantino.
My first time at the festival I was camping with a friend. We managed to get tickets to see Lynch’s Mulholland Drive and it was sensational — a screening I’ll never forget.
Can you describe festival nominee ‘The Substance’?
It’s a feminist take on the body horror film and quite different from “Revenge”, although there are also many similarities. It’s a genre film. Genre films are a great way to talk about social issues.
What I like to do in my films is create other universes: create my own world, with my own rules and codes and push everything to the extreme in a very visceral way, in a way that is very real to what i am
That’s why I wanted to be a director. I was very bored in real life and found watching movies absolutely fantastic. I could escape from everyday life, to which I felt quite unadapted.
Will we see extreme violence and gore in ‘The Substance’ too?
Yes, but in a very different way, because the plot has nothing to do with “Revenge”.
When it comes to violence in movies, what I’m interested in isn’t torture porn or showing pain just for the sake of it. There is always a kind of distance and detachment from the realism of violence. My films are set in colorful, very visual environments, almost like Pop environments. The violence is so extreme that there are moments of humor in it. The exaggerated nature of the violence takes us away from the feeling that this is total realism.
Why are you drawn to extreme violence, a genre that perhaps doesn’t come naturally to women? And I don’t mean that in a sexist way.
Many of our behaviors and attitudes are shaped by our environment, by what we have had access to and been exposed to. Thanks to my grandfather, I discovered movies that I wasn’t allowed to watch at home with my parents because they were too violent.
In my childhood and teenage years, I found everything that boys had access to cooler and more fun. I was extremely affected by this and felt this inequality from a very young age.
There were stereotypes about what girls were allowed to do, how we were supposed to look, how we behaved: We had to be sensitive, smile and be nice. “The Substance” is very much about what we have to conform to as a woman and how it affects our lives socially.
So your movies are about revenge?
Totally: revenge on the female body and how it is perceived.
A boy walking in public has a neutral body. no one will look at him. A woman in public is a different story: the way she is seen and seen, the way she is treated if she behaves or dresses in this or that way, if she is of this or that age.
There is an extreme disparity that creates huge inequality and extreme violence that we women face every day. The metaphorical violence of “The Substance” reflects the violence of this everyday inequality, which women continue to face.
Your film coincided with a wave of sexual misconduct allegations against Hollywood movie mogul Harvey Weinstein. Did the #MeToo scandal help the film and its reception?
Certainly, there was a maddening overlap between fiction and reality. “Revenge” was suddenly an incredible depiction of the headlines. And the news headlines made it much more accessible to people who otherwise wouldn’t have deciphered the issues within it.
Cannes has been slow to promote female talent: As recently as 2012, there were no women in the main competition. What are your thoughts?
I am 100 percent in favor of affirmative action. You can’t change 3,000 years of habits and unequal access between men and women overnight — without an active desire to be proactive about reversing the status quo. The numbers are still unequal. The shift must be forced. otherwise things will continue as they are.