Raw (2017) and the New French Extremity Movement
Raw was directed and written by Julia Ducournau.
I would like to preface this review with a trigger warning. Raw is a violent and often disturbing film that deals with themes of cannibalism and body horror. In this article some of these themes and scenes from the film will be talked about.
I don’t know if any of you read those articles coming out of Tiff (https://www.theguardian.com/film/2016/sep/14/cannibal-horror-film-raw-toronto-film-festival )where people were throwing up and leaving the theater (http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/news/raw-trailer-cannes-julia-ducournau-french-vomit-festivals-cannibalism-vegan-a7526411.html ). When it comes to cinema like this you cannot get better press. As a filmmaker and a critic it’s hard to resist a film that caused such a stir. I was unable to see the film when it first came out and only recently discovered that it had been added to Netflix (I apologize for the late article). In this article I’m going to discuss Raw as well as break down and discuss the movement it’s a part of: The New French Extremity. First lets discuss the film…
Raw
The film shows how in college there’s a different type of peer pressure that happens within a young person’s mind (put very simply, the actions of the film are a direct result from actions the main character is forced into via hazing). Even though this film takes it to the most extreme, some of it, like the party scene (pictured above), is not all that extreme from what we have heard regarding dangerous hazing rituals in various colleges. This ideology and college culture surrounding hazing is something that many of us are aware of either through first person experience or through word of mouth. That makes the film very timely. The film is gruesome and I would not recommend it to anyone who does not have a strong stomach. With that said, it’s also not your run-of-the-mill average horror film with jump-scares, spirituality, and creature-violence. The violence is shocking but Ducournau treats it with such an unyielding gaze with her camera. This makes it feel very in the moment and it really forces you to examine it both visually and psychologically. It’s the way the camera treats it’s subject. She shows it unflinchingly. Sometimes you’re even graced with a close-up. It’s so unyielding and it forces you to look in the most disturbing and voyeuristic way, I haven’t seen a director achieve this type of effect in any other horror film that I’ve seen in recent memory. I feel like what the the film does, what the director has done here, with the camera, with the narrative, is truly fascinating. It also shows how the harshness of the world can wear down even some of our highest held morals or personal beliefs. What is being shown here is a type of violence in human nature that we are not often exposed to in cinema.
There’s an interesting type of sexuality present in the film. The main character is a virgin. She’s thrown into this atmosphere where there’s expectations of experience, and experimentation is inevitable. It’s a violent coming-of-age story with great emphasis on blood, sex, and violence. Throwing these three aspects together is very taboo, obviously, but still revealing of some type of dark human nature. The constant emphasis on blood and bleeding makes me think immediately of menstruation or bleeding upon having sex for the first time. Seeing as the main character is a virgin, this could be a metaphor for the loss of virginity, the loss of innocence, the changes a woman’s body goes through during these events. This is the angle that interests me most. It’s also the one I was instantly drawn to. I often go with gut instinct with films like this. The body goes through such change during menstruation. For lack of a better phrase, it’s an all out siege on a women’s body. You are in pain, sometimes you get acne (reminiscent of when Justine broke out in a rash), and your skin even feels different. Your composition changes. Periods also make you crave things, your mood changes too. Physical and psychological changes occur when we have intercourse for the first time as well. It’s like our main character has matured into what she was ‘meant’ to inevitably become. The characters are all going through some sort of state of change, our main character Justine (Garance Marillier) is new in college, she’s a vegetarian, she’s never had an intimate relationship that we know of, and all of these things change rapidly. Her roommate, who is gay, become sexually confused upon her arrival, so therefore he goes through a sort of identity change that he struggles with himself. Whereas her sister Alexia (Ella Rumpf) goes from being the only older daughter in college to a sort of protector/mentor to her younger sister. The two of them form a type of bond over their addiction. I suppose, saying that, one could make a very interesting argument for the film being a metaphor for heavy drug addiction. The body goes through changes, you become a slave to urges, others get hurt. The film achieves another level of disturbing between the two sisters. It’s accepted as something that they do together (consuming human flesh). They even help each other cause a car accident so that they can have a new victim. That in itself makes it so much more disturbing because there are no operatics to it. There’s a buildup in the violence as it occurs (we go from Justine eating a rabbit kidney to consuming her own sister’s severed finger), there’s no relief however. It stays stagnate once it reaches a point. Everything, directly or not, builds up to the final act of violence in the film. Then as soon as you feel like Ducournau is allowing you to breath a little, she lets loose the final blow. The plot twist if you will, the origin of these sister’s actions is finally accounted for.
The intelligence of the film, once you get past the violence, and the gore, is that it has so many metaphorical applications, and social ones too for that matter. The director is not giving you pure exhibitionism here. It’s not violence for the sake of violence, it shocks you of course, naturally, it is supposed to shock you. I feel like that is a problem the film will face however. Not everyone will be able to see beyond it, and most audiences don’t really want to be shocked anymore, especially in this way.
I want to take a moment to talk about the lighting in the film. It was really stunning. One scene in particular really stuck with me. The scene where Justine is dancing in front of the mirror, (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=veEPz-nB-_Q ) she’s listening to a very sexually charged song, and interacting with the mirror. The lighting is natural with tinges of blue and teal. The camera moves in on her and cuts between seeing her in front of the mirror to being behind the mirror. She rubs her hot pink lipstick on the mirror, kissing it. The composition and lighting of the scene coupled with the camera work made it an extremely effective scene. You could sense her demeanor changing in the scene, her body and the way she carried herself changed, and you can see it here. The cinematographer was Ruben Impens (Broken Circle Breakdown, 2012), I hope to see him work with Ducournau in the future. The lighting is on the harsher side overall, reds, blues and oranges pop throughout. The blood all over the white lab coats goes from crimson red to rust, it begins to look more and more washed out as the film advances. Like she tried to wash it out over and over again. Her lab coat looks and feels permanently tainted. The deep reds during the second party scene (pictured earlier) clearly feel undiegetic, but it acts more as a look, a feel, into her mental state. The scene when she’s under the covers (pictured below) is also rather interesting. The scars and the sounds of her scratching are so visceral, her wounds are shown in a harsh and unforgiving light. These reds and blues grow harsher and more unnatural as the film goes on. A few subtle sickening green tones sneak their way in as well.
It is too early to tell the impact this film will have, but clearly more than shock factor is at play. Raw is the most impacful thing I’ve seen come out of France aside from the work of Xavier Dolan (who I wait with bated breath for his next project, whatever that might be). It’s an exciting film and I cannot wait to see what’s next for Julia Ducournau. This is a film that will have a cult following, but I really don’t think it will ever have a mainstream following. it’s certainly getting some degree of notoriety. She is someone the foreign markets need to keep an eye on.
The New French Extremity Movement
This movement is not exactly new to the world of French cinema, it is becoming more well known on a global scale, thanks in large part to Raw actually. The movement originated when critic James Quandt grouped a series of French transgressive films developed around the turn of the 21st century. A film can be categorized in this movement if it deals with: body horror, sexual decadence (and/or sex as violence), psychosis, severe violence, or human suffering. While these qualifiers are very sweeping, and sometimes hard to pin down, the movement itself lies on the crossroads of art house, body horror, and the exploitation film, put more simply. Some famous directors who are part of this movement include, but are not limited to Olivier Assayas, Gaspar Noe, Christophe Honore, Claire Denis, and Virginie Despentes. Taste of Cinema offers a great list of French Extremity titles if you’re interested in exploring this genre further. I also suggest you proceed looking at this link with caution: http://www.tasteofcinema.com/2014/15-essential-films-for-an-introduction-to-the-new-french-extremity/ .
I feel this movement/genre is important because film as an art form should exercise its limits (some argue there are no limits) and it should show the worst of humanity if it so wishes to. One can like or dislike this movement, but we must acknowledge its place in the grand scale of film history and its impact on society. I personally have many issues with the work of Gaspar Noe, more specifically his film Irreversible (2002), I found Baise-moi (Virginie Despentes, Coralie Trinh Thi, 2000)to be horrific. There are select films within it that I find important like Raw and Trouble Every Day (2001). Despite this, I will argue for the rights of these directors to tell their stories how they feel they need to be told. I will not discount a piece of film art just because I disagree with it on the grounds of its content and how it shows it. An important thing that we need to keep reminding ourselves about New French Extremity is that the films don’t attempt to be grotesque just for the sake of being exhibitionist. There’s always a message, a moral, or a kind of metaphor within the films. We can agree, disagree, and debate this all day long. That is the beauty of film theory.
