French New Extremity “Bava as much as Bataille, - PowerPoint Presentation

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French New Extremity

“Bava as much as Bataille,

Salò

no less than Sade seem the determinants of a cinema suddenly determined to break every taboo, to wade in rivers of viscera and spumes of sperm, to fill each frame with flesh, nubile or gnarled, and subject it to all manner of penetration, mutilation, and defilement.”

Origins

James Quant originated the term when describing the current trend of overly violent and sexualized French films made since the late 1990sAlain

Robbe

-Griller is considered the founder, being one of the first (most main-stream) to include graphic scenes of sex and violence in films like:

C'est

Gradiva

Qui Vous Appelle

(2006)

The Blue Villa

(1995)

The Beautiful Prisoner

(1983)

Can be defined as “crossover between sexual decadence, bestial violence and troubling psychosis”

Has origins in art house cinema and horror films

American ‘torture porn’ can be considered a cousin movement

Influences

A great variety of earlier filmmakers have been credited as influences such as:

Luis Bunuel

Georges

Franju

Alain

Resnais

Kenneth Anger

Dario

Argento

Maya

Deren

Mario

Bava

French author Marquis de Sade (where the word ‘sadism’ comes from) has also been listed as very influential, especially in his use of sexually graphic passages

Themes and Characteristics

Themes

:

Home invasion

Fear

of the

other

Fear

of

our

own

bodies

Characteristics

Subversive attitude

towards

mainstream

French society and

politics

Extremely

graphic

portrayals

of

sex

and violence

Sensationalized

content

NOTE:

though

the

movement

is

most

often

associated

with

horror

films,

many

New

Emtremity

films are

considered

dramas

or thrillers

InfluencedThe term ‘New Extremity’ has been used to apply to European directors in general (i.e., Lars Von Trier, Michael

Haneke)Films have also been influenced by the movement

Antichrist

Funny Games

[REC]

Wolf Creek

Key Films and Filmmakers

FilmsInside

Them

Ma Mère

Intimacy

Filmmakers

Alexandre

Aja

(

The

Hills

Have

Eyes, Mirrors, Piranah 3D)Alexandre Bustilla (Inside, Livid)Claire Denis (Firday Night, Beau Travail, The Intruder)Xavier Gens (Hitman, The Divide)Pascal Laugier (House of Voices, The Tall Man)

Baise-Moi (Fuck Me/

Rape Me)

(2000)

Directed by

Viriginie

Despentes

and

Coralie

Trinh

Thi

the two main characters are female and are brutally gang-raped which triggers them to go on a killing spree

The rape scene has been criticized for being arousing, using shots that are mostly only seen in hard core porn

Trouble Every Day

(2001)

Directed by Claire Denis

Two Americans are honeymooning in Paris, where the husband tracks down a doctor. The doctor’s wife suffers from an obsessive sex drive that ends with her cannibalize her sexual partner (always a stranger). This triggers the honeymooner’s own obsession.

Surprisingly well received by critics, but because of its blend of sex and violence it is considered New Extremity

Irréversible (Irreversible)

(2002)

Directed by Gaspar

Noe

Two men try to avenge the brutal rape of one of their girlfriends

Presented in reverse chronological order

The

rape scene

has been both praised for showing the brutality of the act and criticized for the length of the scene

The film has been accused of being homophobic (gay man rapes a woman, several transgender women are shown doing drugs and working as prostitutes)

Haute Tension (High Tension)

(2003)

Directed by

Alexandre

Aja

(also attributed to torture porn)

Two college friends visit one of their families, only for a masked man to kill the family and kidnap one of the friends. The other friend goes after the killer to rescue her friend

Criticized for being overly violent

The filmmakers had to cut 5 minutes to achieve an R rating from the MPAA

Frontiere(s) (Frontiers

)(2007)

Directed by Xavier Gens

After an extreme right wing president is elected, riots break out in Parisian suburbs (where the extensively Arab immigrant population lives). A group of Arabs flees Paris and stops at a secluded motel (run by neo-Nazis) They are kidnapped and try to escape.

Open criticism of the conservative politics of the French government during the last decade

Criticized for its overt political message and comparison of the French government to the Nazi regime

Includes an Arab character being killed in a gas chamber

Martyrs (2008)

Directed by Pascal

Laugier

American remake in the works by the producers of

Twilight

(?!?)

Two women who were kidnapped as children track down their kidnappers 15 years later. After they kill their main kidnappers, they discover that they were kidnapped and tortured as part of a cult ritual. They are then recaptured by the cult and are tortured in various ways. The cult believes that one can achieve ‘transcendence’ by being put through an extreme amount of pain.

Again, the amount of violence was heavily criticized (scenes include the skinning of a human while she is alive)

Connected to torture porn, but the director describes it as ‘anti-

Hostel

’

My film is very clear about what it says about human pain and human suffering. [...] The film is only really about the nature and the meaning of human suffering. I mean, the pain we all feel on an everyday basis - in a symbolic way. The film doesn't talk about torture - it talks about the pain

Catherine Breillat

Novelist and filmmaker

Acted in the film

The Last Tango in Paris

, a film noted for graphic sex scenes

Considered a New Extremity director because of her use of graphic sex scenes to explore female sexuality

Fat Girl

(2001): A young girl discovers her sexuality through voyeuristic acts (mainly watching her sister have sex). Ends with her family being killed and she being raped, which she denies happened when questioned by police.

Anatomy of Hell

(2004): a woman is prevented from killing herself and is watched over by the man who stopped her. She precedes to explain her views on sex and sexuality to him.

Contains

unsimulated sex (the actors actually have sex during shooting)

Sources

http://mubi.com/lists/new-french-extremity-influenceshttp://thepiratebay.se/torrent/5671099/10_French_Horror__Thriller__New_French_Extremity_And_Fantasy_Fil

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_French_Extremity

http://subtitledhell.wordpress.com/tag/new-french-extremity/

http://www.bonjourtristesse.net/2010/10/new-wave-of-flesh-and-blood.html

http://thesplitscreen.wordpress.com/2011/06/28/confronting-mortality-the-new-french-extremity-the-hostel-series-and-outdated-terminology-part-2-of-3/

Quandt

, James (February 2004).

"Flesh & Blood: Sex and violence in recent French cinema"

.

Artforum

.

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0268/is_6_42/ai_113389507. Retrieved 2008-06-10. Also available on the ArtForum websitePalmer, Tim (2011). Brutal Intimacy: Analyzing Contemporary French Cinema. Wesleyan University Press. Horeck, Tanya; Kendall, Tina (2011). The New Extremism in Cinema: From France to Europe. Edinburgh University Press