Revenge
In the buildup to the premiere of The Substance (19 Sep), Lumière is screening Coralie Fargeat’s debut feature, a rape-revenge film told from a distinctly female perspective. Blood, sex, spectacle and feminism.
Three wealthy married men get together for their annual hunting game in a desert canyon. But this time, one of them brought his sexy mistress Jen. After a night of partying, things take a dark turn. Jen is sexually assaulted and left for dead in the middle of desert hell. But the young woman comes back to life and begins a relentless manhunt for her male assailants.
Coralie Fargeat’s first feature never received the widespread attention it deserved. The success of her second film THE SUBSTANCE – the wildest and buzziest title of this year’s film festival in Cannes – has led to renewed interest in this formally dazzling rape-revenge horror film. Taking aim at the male gaze, victim blaming, and complicity, Fargeat’s phoenix-rising parable is a rewarding, gory, and uber-bloody body horror that will have you on the edge of your seat from start to finish.