Julia Ducournau never asked for this. When the now-33-year-old French writer-director was plotting out her feature debut, she wanted to make a movie that spoke frankly about a womans place in the world. Female bodies portrayed on our screens and in our society [are] always either sexualized to please men or glamorized to set expectations for women, she says, her voice quickening on the phone. No one can relate to that we are only building up fantasies about the female body.
I wanted to present another option, Ducournau adds. A body that sweats, that pukes, that pees. And one that hungers.
From that initial germ came Raw, one of the most singular horror films of the last several years. (It opens on Friday, March 10th.) A graphic, emotional thriller about a virginal, vegetarian veterinary student named Justine (Garance Marillier), who ends up embracing her inner ravenous cannibal, its earned raves since premiere at last years Cannes Critics Week and an additional wave of publicity after a couple audience members passed out during a midnight screening at the Toronto Film Festival.
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For some filmmakers, that kind of intense viewer reaction would be worn like a badge of honor. Ducournau, however, laments how that attention has warped the intention of the movie she tried to make. I dont think it makes me cool at all, she says flatly when the issue of this unexpected word-of-mouth is raised. I mean, they fainted and Im really sorry about that. But the whole snowball effect that there was on the Internet afterward calling my movie shocking or the most hardcore movie ever made or something . At a certain point, theyre just not talking about my movie anymore.
Which isnt to say that Raw doesnt have moments in it that will stop viewers in their tracks this isnt a movie that shies away from the aftermath of its heroines newfound appetites. During her schools vindictive hazing rituals, shes forced to eat rabbit kidney, which initially disgusts her, and later provokes a painful, infectious rash all over her stomach. Then, unexpectedly, a sliced-off finger starts to look like a forbidden delicacy, and quickly Justine is fighting to repress a craving to take a bite out of her classmates.
Her 2011 short Junior, which also played at Cannes and starred
Marillier as a tomboy who experiences her own bizarre transformation,
suggests a recurring obsession with the body politic. But the roots of
her work, she says. go back to her mother and father, who encouraged a
wide-ranging appreciation of different films.
My parents are very big movie buffs, Ducournau admits. They consider the cinema as important in your education as literature. For them, it was very important that I watch the work of major directors as much as I read the work of major writers. And there was no discrimination [against] any kind of genres. I saw everything Billy Wilder, war movies, westerns, musicals. Their open-mindedness had a very big impact on my life.
But it was their profession that profoundly shaped her body-horror fixation. My fathers a dermatologist, and my mom is a gynecologist, she notes, then adds with a laugh, So, yeah, you can see the influence. She credits their work, which they would discuss at the dinner table, for giving her a unique look at life and death.
Doctors have a very specific take on mortality and the human condition, which is very distant, Ducournau explains. There is a lot of relativism because they know that there are no rules in medicine. Anything can happen at any time, and each patient has his own way to be sick. As a kid, it fascinated me but at the same time, it really scared me. It made me fantasize about things that were probably much worse than what they were talking about.
I mean, [people] fainted and Im really sorry about that. But the whole
snowball effect on the Internet afterward at a certain point, theyre just not talking about my movie
anymore.
Indeed, its Raws combination of curiosity and repulsion concerning Justines inexplicable condition as well as the films increasingly claustrophobic tone and creeping unease that amplifies the terror. And yet, the film is surprisingly tender toward its confused, unhinged heroine, even as she turns into a menace. The first idea [for Raw] was really, Why are we quick to dismiss some people from humanity when they are human?' Deciding to push the concept to its furthest extreme, she recalled the soulless flesh-eaters shed seen in cannibal movies. I thought, What if I try to understand how someone who looks like me and is not a supernatural creature can [become a cannibal]? What was the difference between me and them? Why do we think that we are entitled to dismiss some people?
I have this thing in my head the idea of the positive monstrosity, she continues. This character who wants to fit in but realizes she cant fit this particular box, no matter what well, what do we do with her? Should she stop existing? I believe that monstrosities are what make us unique. If she realizes she could kill someone but she wont, then she can be her own wild animal. Thats a positive thing to pinpoint who you are once youve been confronted by your first real moral choice in your life. Most people never get to that stage Shes maybe more human than any of us at the end of the movie.
The worry now, though, is whether viewers will see Raw for its deeper themes or simply because theyve heard that its a five-alarm freak-out. Does the Toronto incident make Ducournau wonder if she pushed things to an unreasonable level? It does not make me worry that I went too far, because I know I didnt, she replies, pointing out that there are only three intense sequences a pittance compared to more extreme examples of the genre. Plus, she notes that the Toronto screening was an isolated incident after nearly a year of showing the film around the globe. And furthermore, as someone who finds excessive violence numbing and uninteresting, shes not thrilled with the prospect of her work being lumped in with the sort of can-you-take-it? movies that are more endurance tests than personal expressions.
I think its sad, Ducournau sighs, because some people are going to be [too] afraid to see something that they probably would have handled very well. And some people, who want to see a torture porn, are going to be disappointed so, its a lose-lose for me. In fact, the filmmaker views her movie as more of a
coming-of-age story. For me, coming-of-age involves a physical
metamorphosis that makes us question our identity, she says. Are
we the same as the person we were before this happened? I see our
humanity as being a constant metamorphosis. I see humans constantly
morphing from one skin to another.
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