West - Films of the new French extremity: visceral horror and national identity

Foreword by Andrea Subissati

McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers
Jefferson, North Carolina

e-ISBN: 978-1-4766-2511-9

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2016 Alexandra West. All rights reserved

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Front cover: Beatrice Dalle in the 2001 film Trouble Every Day (Lot 47 Films/Photofest)

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For my parents

My first encounter with New French Extremity was renting Alexandre Ajas High Tension a few years after its initial release. I had heard breathless reviews of the spellbinding yet highly violent pseudo-slasher film and decided to see it as soon as possible. When I finally got my hands on a DVD of the film I rushed to my best friend Alices house to watch it with her. It was as sunny a day as you could ask for and we settled in to watch the film after, oddly enough, watching a copy of Franois Truffauts Jules and Jim (1962) which one of her older brothers had left lying around the house. My first viewing of High Tension was stupefying. I felt betrayed, angry, and incomplete after watching it. The bizarre twist in the film had rendered what I thought to be in the world of the film irrelevant. My friend had a similar reaction, yet we kept talking about it.

It was these conversations that led to this book. Initially they began with friends, family, and fellow writers about these films that I could not shake from my mind. The most important of these conversations was with Andrea Subissati and Paul Corupe, who not only encouraged my thought process but asked me to do a lecture on the very subject for their Black Museum series. Without Paul and Andreas initial belief in this subject, this book would not exist. In researching the lecture, which was given in March 2014, I realized there were books that dealt thoughtfully and intelligently with contemporary French films but none that focused on the movement from art-house films to full-fledged horror films. In this book, I attempt to explore this transition. This transition happened because of the demands of the film industry and I was lucky enough to speak with TIFF Midnight Madness programmer and Shudder curator Colin Geddes. Colin generously introduced me to Peter Block, former vice president of acquisitions at Lionsgate Films and current film fixer. Both Colin and Peters insights and generosity contributed to a deeper understanding of the movement within this book.

While writers tend to write in solitude, which was the case with this book, I am deeply grateful to my family, friends, and colleagues who willingly engaged in a dialogue about all things French and horrifying: Patrice Baillargeon, Alice Berg, Adam Driscoll, Paul Erlichman, Jennifer Frees, Chris Hayes, Liisa Ladouceur, Alison Lang, Darren McLennan, Stacie Ponder, Neil Rankin, Giles Sander, Peter Sander, Joanne Sarazen, Kim Snider, Diana West, Lindsay Wilson, Emma Yardley, Sam Zimmerman & Zuzu.

Parlez-Vous Horror?

If I could trace the origin of my friendship with Alexandra West, Id say it started with our mutual love for Pascal Laugiers Martyrs. I met Alex in the summer of 2011, when we were both invited to be interviewed as female journalists working in horror. I got to know a fair bit about Alex through that guest spotI cant recall any of the answers I gave that day, but I remember all of hers, particularly with regard to the aforementioned film. Martyrs, which would come to be recognized as a pivotal title in the New French Extremity movement, is brilliant, but its also a challenging watch; apart from the dual-narrative that significantly changes gears midway through, there are unflinchingly graphic scenes where a young woman, captive and bound, is mercilessly beaten by a large man. Oddly enough, Martyrs unabashed display of physical brutality against women is neither exploitative nor misogynistic. The scenes are necessary point plots of a deeply inventive and philosophical story: a narrative device that made sure the movie hit you right in the gut, and hard. These images were terribly shocking to Western audiences, and even the most hardened of horror fanatics had to confront the fact that the film was something different, and indeed, something special. When Alex revealed that she read it the same way, she earned an automatic seal of approval from me: a test she didnt realize she aced.

We were tadpoles in the industry back then, and our careers emerged through different but parallel paths. By 2014, I was running a horror lecture series with Paul Canuxploitation Corupe out of Toronto called The Black Museum, a monthly event where wed host a talk with a local pro on a given horror-related topic. Alex had lectured the year prior on her masters thesis research on found footage films, so when she approached us to do another talk, we already knew she had the skills necessary to hold an audience of over 60 with just a mic and a slideshow. This time, she wanted to talk about a movement in French horror that took place between the early 90s and the late 2000s dubbed the New French Extremity. I had seen (and greatly enjoyed) such films as Calvaire, Inside, and High Tension, but I hadnt considered them as part of a cohesive movement. Naturally, I was all ears at her lecture titled Quelle Horreur! The Films of New French Extremity. In the presentation, she outlined the social context of 20th century France and explained how a country, world-renowned for high culture and romance, drew from a history of political discord and strife to churn out the darkest, ugliest nightmares to be committed to film. The lecture was a hit, of course, and I like to flatter myself by thinking that in hosting that talk, I helped Alex start on what would eventually culminate in this book.

What makes Alexs perspectives on film so unique is that her arguments are not only articulate and insightful, theyre deeply personal. Horror speaks to her directly and she has the gumption as well as the literary chops to look beyond the technical and superficial to the cultural implications of these films and the cinematic movement they comprised. Its a talent she brings to the table every month when we get together to record our academic horror podcast, The Faculty of Horror, and I think its largely the reason our listeners continue to tune in to each episode. Visually, Alex and I couldnt be more differentI look like a Kat Von D impersonator and she could have stepped right off of an H&M billboardbut weve become close colleagues (as well as dear friends) because we share an inclination to approach horror from these larger cultural and social perspectives.

Our work together on The Faculty of Horror has made us so close that I revel in her accomplishments as if they were my own, and Im terribly pleased to provide the foreword to this comprehensive volume on a cinematic movement that grew out of turmoil and resistance; a movement so gritty and unprecedented that it requires the brainy zeal that Alex consistently brings to our show. Horror movies have always been about breaking taboos, and in the case of the New French Extremity movement, its about breaking taboos that even