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 1990s
• Alain 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:
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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
Influenced
• The 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
• Films
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Key Films and Filmmakers
Inside
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-influences
• http://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-andblood.html
• http://thesplitscreen.wordpress.com/2011/06/28/confronting-mortalitythe-new-french-extremity-the-hostel-series-and-outdated-terminologypart-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 website
• Palmer, 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