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Confronting Rape in the New French Extremity

<p>At times&comma; how we go about interpreting films has little to do with story arc or character development&comma; and more to do with the pattern of images&comma; and the intensity with which those images are presented to us&period; Visual stimulus can be an incredibly powerful tool for inciting visceral reactions&comma; and thus speaking to viewers on a level that goes beyond dialogue or nuanced storytelling&period; This kind of visceral imagery became a staple of a French film movement beginning in the late 1990’s and continuing into the 21<sup>st<&sol;sup> century&comma; collectively known as the <em>New French Extremity<&sol;em>&comma; or the <em>cinema du corps<&sol;em> &lpar;&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;cinema of the body”&rpar;&period; Film critic James Quandt first coined the term &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;New French Extremity&comma;” which he defines as &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;the growing vogue for shock tactics in French Cinema&period;” Quandt bemoans the movement as &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;a narcissistic response to the collapse of ideology in a society traditionally defined by political polarity and theoretical certitude…the authentic&comma; liberating outrage&&num;8211&semi;political&comma; social&comma; sexual&&num;8211&semi;that fueled such apocalyptic visions as <em>Salo<&sol;em> and <em>Weekend<&sol;em> now seems impossible&comma; replaced by an aggressiveness that is really a grandiose form of passivity” &lpar;Quandt&rpar;&period; These films predate&comma; and to some extent led to the popularity of &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;torture porn” films of the early and mid 2000’s&comma; however there is generally a difference of intent between these two movements&period; Though Quandt saw the NFE as a decline in the quality of film art in France&comma; many saw it as a movement with much higher aspirations than mere shock value&period; Timothy Nicodemo theorizes that the NFE is part of an &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;aesthetic of the fragment” that reflects &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;swelling fragmentation among people&comma; relations and communication disjointed and repressed&comma; and an air of malaise having turned into one of transgression&comma; artistically and socio-politically” &lpar;Nicodemo&rpar;&period; While films of the NFE are certainly intended to shock and disturb&comma; it is not generally the intention of the filmmakers to provide salacious material purely for audience enjoyment&comma; as is the case with torture porn films like James Wan’s <em>Saw<&sol;em> &lpar;2004&rpar; and Eli Roth’s <em>Hostel<&sol;em> &lpar;2005&rpar;&period; In fact&comma; the material is not intended to be enjoyed&comma; in the traditional sense&comma; but absorbed and evaluated&comma; the way one might observe a tragic car accident&colon; first&comma; with shock and horror&comma; and later&comma; with careful evaluation of the details&period; <em>What actually happened&quest; What caused it&quest; What could have been done to prevent it&quest;<&sol;em> Of course&comma; the thought process when evaluating a real-life incident and those events occurring in a film are different&comma; to be sure&period; When evaluating a film&comma; viewers often reflect on the material in a way that addresses those particular elements that make it an artistic endeavor&period; <em>What is the filmmaker’s intent&quest; What is he or she trying to tell me&quest; How does this film make me feel&quest; Why do I feel this way&quest; What does this say about me&comma; or society as a whole&quest;<&sol;em> Surely&comma; not everyone will evaluate films in the same way&comma; particularly when there is shocking or disturbing content&period; Some might refuse to even address it&comma; as the material is too repulsive to contemplate any further&comma; or too horrible to even be viewed in the first place&period; Others might find some kind of perverse pleasure from it&comma; but still others will evaluate its artistic merit&comma; as well as the underlying message&period; <em>For what purpose am I subjected to such repulsive material&quest; What makes it repulsive&quest; What message does this material send to its viewers&quest; <&sol;em>There are many films that shock merely for the sake of shocking&comma; and even with films that purportedly do so&comma; there is still meaning to be extracted from the shock value&period; Perhaps a filmmaker wishes to push the limits of what can be shown in film&comma; to shirk the more traditional&comma; conservative priggishness of mainstream society&period; Or perhaps the filmmaker wishes to shine a light on some oft overlooked injustice&comma; incident or subject matter that many find too disturbing or upsetting to deal with directly&period; Looking at French films specifically&comma; there is a tradition &lpar;starting with the onset of the New French Extremity&rpar; of using sex as the central ingredient when composing disturbing material intended to shock&period; More specifically&comma; the act of rape is utilized&comma; often so much so as to be a crucial element of the plot&comma; to repulse and offend the senses&period; Films of the New French Extremity feature graphic depictions of rape with the specific intention of disturbing and eliciting disgust in the audience&comma; thus simultaneously condemning the act and providing audiences with a means to evaluate this condemnation directly&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;proper” way of depicting rape &lpar;if there is one&rpar;&comma; or whether or not to depict rape at all in film has been a debate among film theorists for decades&comma; particularly feminist film theorists whose focus is generally on depictions of the female body and the degradation of women in film&period; In 1960&comma; Ingmar Bergman’s film <em>The Virgin Spring<&sol;em>&comma; was decried for its handling of rape&comma; with Bosley Crowther describing scenes of &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;brutality that&comma; for sheer unrestrained realism&comma; may leave one sickened and stunned…as much as they may contribute to the forcefulness of the theme&comma; they tend to disturb the senses out of proportion to the dramatic good they do&period;” &lpar;Crowther&rpar;&period; The film inspired a plethora of rape-revenge films&comma; often far more graphic than their predecessors&comma; including such exploitation films as <em>The Last House on the Left<&sol;em> &lpar;1972&rpar; and <em>I Spit on Your Grave<&sol;em> &lpar;1978&rpar;&period; This subgenre’s popularity peaked in the 1970’s&comma; but found a resurgence with the rise of torture porn in the 2000’s &lpar;both of the aforementioned films were remade in 2009 and 2010&comma; respectively&rpar;&period; And though there has been a steady trend of increasingly graphic exploitation films with the passage of time&comma; extreme depictions of violence and sadism increased dramatically at the onset of the 21<sup>st<&sol;sup> century with the evolution of the rape-revenge and torture porn subgenres&period; Films such as <em>Chaos<&sol;em> &lpar;2005&rpar; were described as &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;an exercise in heartless cruelty” &lpar;Ebert&rpar; and <em>Straightheads<&sol;em> &lpar;2007&rpar; as &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;a shallow study of the intoxicating allure of violence” &lpar;Davies&rpar;&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>These graphic depictions of rape and violence were the offspring of the New French Extremity&comma; a film movement that began in the late 1990’s with Gaspar Noe’s <em>I Stand Alone<&sol;em> &lpar;1998&rpar; and Leos Carax’s <em>Pola X<&sol;em> &lpar;1999&rpar;&period; Many&comma; but not all of the films of this movement are classified as horror&comma; with their disturbing material generally stemming from excessive gore and violence&period; However&comma; many of these films are simply dramatic stories that happen to contain extreme&comma; even frightening material&comma; like Catherine Breillat’s erotic drama&comma; <em>Anatomy of Hell<&sol;em> &lpar;2004&rpar;&period; And&comma; while most of these films deal directly with sex&comma; often in grotesque or perverse ways&comma; not all of them depict or even address instances of rape&period; For example&comma; in <em>Ma Mere<&sol;em> &lpar;2004&rpar;&comma; from director Christophe Honoré&comma; Isabelle Huppert plays a mother who provokes an incestuous relationship with her son&period; While the story itself is rather shocking&comma; and much of the sex is graphic&comma; growing more extreme as the story reaches its climactic moments&comma; rape never occurs&comma; nor is it ever mentioned or alluded to in any way&period; Similarly&comma; in Gaspar Noe’s psychedelic drama&comma; <em>Enter the Void<&sol;em> &lpar;2009&rpar;&comma; we often see sex in various settings &lpar;and in one instance&comma; we observe sex from inside a character’s vagina as it is being penetrated&rpar;&comma; but again&comma; there is never any mention of rape&period; In yet another NFE film&comma; <em>Ils<&sol;em> &lpar;2006&rpar;&comma; a woman and her husband are terrorized by a group of hooded teenage boys&period; The extremity in <em>Ils<&sol;em> lies in the &lpar;occasional&rpar; graphic violence and the apparent lack of morality on the part of the intruders&comma; but there is never any indication that rape or sexual assault is involved in their crimes&period; In these three films&comma; sex and&sol;or violence are taken to extremes for the viewer&comma; but we are never forced to contemplate or witness rape in any direct or indirect way&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;798" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-798" style&equals;"width&colon; 719px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-798" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;philosophyinfilm&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2017&sol;05&sol;Baise-moi-300x187&period;jpg" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"719" height&equals;"448" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-798" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">A horrifying gang-rape leads the women on a path of graphic sexuality and violence &lpar;Baise-Moi&comma; 2000&rpar;&period;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>However&comma; many films of the French New Extremity feature rape&comma; often as a crucial element to the plot&period; In <em>Baise-Moi<&sol;em> &lpar;2000&rpar;&comma; one of the earliest films of the NFE movement&comma; two women&comma; Nadine and Manu&comma; set out on a cross-country crime spree after being gang-raped&period; Much of the sex in the film is not simulated&comma; with the actors actually engaging in penetrative intercourse on screen&period; The filmmakers capture the sex from varying angles&comma; frequently cutting in to close ups of the genitals&period; With very little&comma; if any&comma; aesthetic distinction between the consensual and nonconsensual sex that takes place on screen&comma; the viewer is made to feel intensely uncomfortable by all forms of sex&period; Aside from a brief scene involving a character watching pornography&comma; the first sexual encounter shown in the film is the gang-rape&comma; which is both violent and graphic&period; The film in its entirety is pornographic&comma; but it never really allows itself to be titillating&period; By first showing the audience violent rape&comma; followed by instances of consensual sex&comma; it forces the viewers to think about every sexual image in relation to the initial rape&period; Even the consensual sex cannot be titillating&comma; as it is intrinsically linked with rape&period; Since the filmmakers refuse to draw a marked divide between the two kinds of sex&comma; they make the rape scenes that much more repulsive and emphatic&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The most notable example of rape in the NFE comes from Gaspar Noe’s controversial film&comma; <em>Irreversible <&sol;em>&lpar;2002&rpar;&period; In this film&comma; we see a violent&comma; shocking rape scene that goes on for almost 10 minutes&comma; with minimal editing&period; The audience is subjected to a scene in which Alex &lpar;played by Monica Bellucci&rpar; is returning home from a party late at night&period; She goes through an enclosed underpass&comma; where she encounters a pimp berating a transsexual prostitute&period; When he sees her approaching&comma; he releases the prostitute and threatens Alex with a knife&period; Once he has her on the ground&comma; he rapes her for several minutes&comma; before beating her mercilessly&comma; leaving her body bruised and bloody on the ground&period; Though Roger Ebert gave the film 3 out of 4 stars&comma; he described <em>Irreversible<&sol;em> as &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;a movie so violent and cruel that most people will find it unwatchable” &lpar;Ebert&rpar;&period; Audience reactions were often dramatic&comma; and several countries even considered banning the film outright &lpar;&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Film Faces Ban&comma;” 2004&rpar;&period; While many saw the rape scene as incredibly excessive and unnecessary&comma; it is a definitive element of the film&comma; anchoring the entire plot&period; <em>Irreversible<&sol;em> is shot in reverse chronological order&comma; however &lpar;in chronological order&rpar; the story begins with Alex telling her boyfriend&comma; Marcus &lpar;played by Vincent Cassel&rpar;&comma; that she might be pregnant&period; He is happy about this new revelation&comma; and they prepare to go to a party later that night with their mutual friend and Alex’s ex-boyfriend&comma; Pierre &lpar;played by Albert Dupontel&rpar;&period; Once at the party&comma; Marcus’s unbridled drug-use and lecherous behavior bother Alex&comma; and she decides to leave the party alone&period; On her way home&comma; she encounters the pimp who rapes her&period; The remainder of the film follows Marcus and Pierre as they attempt to track down her rapist and exact revenge&period; This leads them into the dark underworld of prostitution and sex clubs&comma; where we are witness to bizarre sex scenes and extreme violence&period; In addition to the unsettling narrative&comma; Gaspar Noe uses the camera and sound to cause further disquiet in the audience&period; Though the rape scene is viewed as one long take&comma; with both perpetrator and victim centered in the frame&comma; the majority of the film is shown through swirling&comma; unfocused shots&period; The camera swings around in every direction&comma; only affording us glimpses of sexual depravity&comma; before plunging the audience into darkness or swirling around to something else&period; Often the action is at the periphery of the frame&comma; or just out of sight&period; This style is meant to be unsettling&comma; and Noe even includes low-frequency sound to induce nausea and anxiety in the audience &lpar;Wilson&rpar;&period; These elements combine to make the film&comma; and specifically the rape at the center of the film&comma; incredibly upsetting for the audience&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;799" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-799" style&equals;"width&colon; 714px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-799" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;philosophyinfilm&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2017&sol;05&sol;Elle-300x169&period;jpg" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"714" height&equals;"402" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-799" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">Michele &lpar;played by Isabelle Huppert&rpar; contemplates exacting revenge on her rapist &lpar;Elle&comma; 2016&rpar;&period;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>Though the New French Extremity is generally confined to films of the late 1990’s up until the mid-2000’s&comma; there have been more recent films that could be considered part of the movement&comma; or at the very least heavily influenced by it&period; For example&comma; most recently&comma; Paul Verhoeven’s psychological thriller&comma; <em>Elle <&sol;em>&lpar;2016&rpar;&comma; is a film that revolves around Michele &lpar;played by Isabelle Huppert&rpar;&comma; who is raped by a masked intruder&period; Throughout the film&comma; we are made to relive the rape through Michele’s eyes&comma; often with certain details changed based on her reconstructed memories&comma; and her ideas of what she could have done differently&period; Michele is the head of a video game company&comma; and after the rape occurs&comma; a company-wide email is sent out showing a monster raping a video game character with Michele’s face&period; As Michele tries to unravel the mystery behind the email and her attack&comma; she is attacked once again by the same masked assailant&period; This time&comma; she stabs him in the hand with a knife and rips off his mask&comma; only to find that he is her neighbor&comma; Richard&comma; with whom she has flirted on multiple occasions&period; Michele’s feelings regarding her rape and the revenge that she wants to exact on Richard become muddled&comma; and further complicated by her own sexuality and troubled past&period; Though <em>Elle<&sol;em> offers a rather ambiguous representation of rape &lpar;entertaining the idea that rape can indeed be a fantasy for some&rpar;&comma; it never takes away from the ugliness of the act&period; Viewers are forced to see rape both as a violent and horrific invasion of the human body&comma; and as a psychologically confusing and traumatic event in a victim’s life&period; Even though Michele seems&comma; at times&comma; rather indifferent to it&comma; we see the rape as an all-consuming ordeal that her character must overcome&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>It is important to note that these are not the only films of the New French Extremity that address rape as something ugly and disturbing&period; Other films that deal directly with rape include&colon; Gaspar Noe’s <em>I Stand Alone<&sol;em> &lpar;1998&rpar;&comma; Jean-Claude Brisseau’s <em>Secret Things<&sol;em> &lpar;2002&rpar;&comma; Catherine Breillat’s <em>Romance X<&sol;em> and <em>Fat Girl<&sol;em> &lpar;1999 and 2001&rpar;&comma; Olivier Assayas’ <em>Demonlover<&sol;em> &lpar;2002&rpar; and Bruno Dumont’s <em>Twentynine Palms<&sol;em> &lpar;2003&rpar;&comma; among others&period; All of these films use rape to shock and disturb the audience&comma; thus emphasizing the depravity and horrific nature of the act itself&period; While there is a long history of films that address rape indirectly&comma; from Alfred Hitchock’s <em>Marnie<&sol;em> &lpar;1964&rpar; to Antoine Fuqua’s <em>Shooter<&sol;em> &lpar;2007&rpar;&comma; films of the New French Extremity highlight the horror of sexual violence and draw attention to our varied perceptions of the act itself through visceral imagery&period; Graphic depictions of rape in film did not begin with the NFE&comma; nor did the concept of visualizing rape as a means of portraying it as sickening or horrifying&period; But the filmmakers of the New French Extremity have incorporated rape as an instrumental part of the shocking and disturbing imagery that defines the movement&comma; and&comma; in turn&comma; shed a bright light on a subject that is most often left in the dark&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Sources&colon;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em>Crowther&comma; Bosley&period; &&num;8220&semi;The Screen&semi; Ingmar Bergman&&num;8217&semi;s Study in Brutality&colon;&&num;8217&semi;The Virgin Spring&&num;8217&semi; in Premiere at Beekman Von Sydow Starred in Ulla Isaksson Script&period;&&num;8221&semi; The New York Times&period; The New York Times&comma; 15 Nov&period; 1960&period; Web&period; 24 May 2017&period;<&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em>Davies&comma; Rebecca&period; &&num;8220&semi;Straightheads&period;&&num;8221&semi; Time Out London&period; Timeout&comma; 27 Apr&period; 2007&period; Web&period; 24 May 2017&period; https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;timeout&period;com&sol;london&sol;film&sol;straightheads<&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em>Ebert&comma; Roger&period; &&num;8220&semi;Chaos Movie Review &amp&semi; Film Summary &lpar;2005&rpar; &vert; Roger Ebert&period;&&num;8221&semi; RogerEbert&period;com&period; Ebert Digital LLC&comma; 11 Aug&period; 2005&period; Web&period; 24 May 2017&period;<&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em>Ebert&comma; Roger&period; &&num;8220&semi;Irreversible Movie Review &amp&semi; Film Summary &lpar;2003&rpar; &vert; Roger Ebert&period;&&num;8221&semi; RogerEbert&period;com&period; Ebert Digital LLC&comma; 14 Mar&period; 2003&period; Web&period; 24 May 2017&period;<&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em>&&num;8220&semi;Film Faces Ban Over Rape Scene&period;&&num;8221&semi; The Sydney Morning Herald&period; Fairfax Digital&comma; 22 Mar&period; 2004&period; Web&period; 24 May 2017&period;<&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em>Nicodemo&comma; Timothy J&period;&comma; &&num;8220&semi;The New French Extremity&colon; Bruno Dumont and Gaspar Noé&comma; France&&num;8217&semi;s Contemporary Zeitgeist&&num;8221&semi; &lpar;2013&rpar;&period; Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository&period; 1586&period; http&colon;&sol;&sol;ir&period;lib&period;uwo&period;ca&sol;etd&sol;1586<&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em>Quandt&comma; James&period; &&num;8220&semi;Flesh &amp&semi; Blood&colon; Sex and Violence in Recent French Cinema&period;&&num;8221&semi; Artforum&period;com&period; Artforum&comma; Feb&period; 2004&period; Web&period; 24 May 2017&period;<&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em>Wilson&comma; Laura &lpar;2015&rpar;&period; <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;books&period;google&period;com&sol;books&quest;id&equals;&lowbar;FJaCwAAQBAJ">Spectatorship&comma; Embodiment and Physicality in the Contemporary Mutilation Film<&sol;a> &lpar;Illustrated ed&period;&rpar;&period; Springer&period; pp&period; 84–85&period;<&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;

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