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Themes and Characteristics

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While the New French Extremity refers to a stylistically diverse group of films and filmmakers, it has been described as “[a] crossover between sexual decadence, bestial violence and troubling psychosis”[1]. The New French Extremity movement has roots in art house and horror cinema [2]. Unlike other contemporary horror movements, like the mainstream torture porn genre, the New French Extremity is distinguished by its commitment to pushing boundaries and breaking taboos. According to film blogger Matt Smith, this tradition has recently “shoved its way very consciously into [France’s] genre endeavors”[2]. Says Smith:

[T]his new crop of horror is something altogether entirely different, concerned as much with gender identity as it is with sheer taboo-breaking of the screen images of bodies. The New French Extremity in particular is a wide-ranging set of films, encompassing art-house darlings like Claire Denis and Catherine Breillat (a filmmaker much more interested in sex than violence, or rather sex as violence) as well as those who might be deemed schlockmeisters by their detractors[,] like Xavier Gens and Alexandre Aja[3].

Films belonging to the New French Extremity take a severe approach to depicting violence and sex[4].

Smith identifies five films that he believes primarily comprise a new wave of horror in France: High Tension, Ils, Frontiere(s), À l'intérieur and Martyrs[2]. These films, he says, provide a “comprehensive snapshot of human anxieties about our bodies,” both corporeally and socially[2]. Within these works, Smith identifies two predominant themes: home invasion and, relatedly, a fear of the Other[2].

Pascal Laugier, director of the film Martyrs, has said that his work is connected to American torture porn efforts like the Saw series and director Eli Roth’s Hostel, though he likens Martyrs to an “anti-Hostel”[5][6]. What makes his film different from its American counterpart, he says, is that Martyrs is about pain rather than torture[7]. Per Laugier:

My film is very clear about what it says about human pain and human suffering. [...] The film is only really about the nature and the meaning of human suffering. I mean, the pain we all feel on an everyday basis - in a symbolic way. The film doesn’t talk about torture - it talks about the pain”[7].

Mark Kermode, a film critic for the BBC and a member of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts, says Martyrs transcends torture-porn films like Hostel precisely because “it’s about something”[6]. According to Kermode, “by the end of Martyrs, it turns out that the subject of transcendence and pain is absolutely what it’s about”[6].

Filmic Roots

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New French Extremity and Body Horror

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Although films belonging to the New French Extremity exhibit traits representative of a wide range of horror sub-genres--including slashers, revenge films and home-invasion films--the Body Horror sub-genre has been particularly influential.

Smith identifies Body Horror as one of New French Extremity’s most significant thematic antecedents, citing the early work of Canadian filmmaker David Cronenberg as a key influence on the movement[3]. He calls attention to the collective focus of the New French Extremity on human corporeality, specifically its destruction and violation:

As the French seem intent to prove, it is not our corporeal existence that should be held sacred - [their] insistence on showing anything and everything is evidence of this. The body is meant to be examined, explicitly and externally, to deepen our understanding of our own humanity...and what we hope lies in wait for us at the end of it all[2].

Xavier Gens, a director associated with the New French Extremity, has loosely situated his work within the Body Horror tradition[8]. He cites David Cronenberg’s 1986 remake of The Fly as an influence on his film Frontiere(s), saying: “To me, Frontiere(s) is a love letter to the genre movie. There’s a lot of reference to The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and The Fly, and to many others...”[8].

Relatedly, film scholar Linda Williams has written about the so-called “body genres”--also known as “gross” genres or “genres of excess”--a label that includes pornography, horror and melodrama[9]. Body genre films “promise to be sensational, to give our bodies an actual physical jolt. [...] [T]heir displays of sensations...are on the edge of respectable,” which is what attracts audiences to them[10]. Such films are necessarily spectacle-driven, depicting human bodies overcome by intense physical or emotional sensations (e.g., pleasure, terror, sadness). Body genre films are also marked by the fact that they induce within viewers an involuntary mimicry of the the emotions or sensations portrayed onscreen--for example: pleasure in porn, terror in horror or sadness in melodrama[11].

Williams has widely featured the work of New French Extremity filmmaker Catherine Breillat in her discussion of body genres, particularly Breillat’s 1999 film, Romance[12].

New French Extremity and Exploitation Cinema

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The New French Extremity bears certain thematic comparisons to the American exploitation cinema of the 1970s. USC film scholar Tania Modleski notes that much of what distinguished the American exploitation movement from the Hollywood-dominated horror films that preceded it was “[exploitation films’] unprecedented assault on all that bourgeois culture is supposed to cherish--like the ideological apparatuses of the family and the school”[13]. Films like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and The Brood, she says, were at the time noteworthy for their “adversarial relation to contemporary culture and society”[14]. In much the same way, many films belonging to the New French Extremity have been explicit in their criticism and rejection of bourgeois ideals. Films like Martyrs, À l'intérieur and Frontiere(s), for example, have been noted for their subversive attitudes toward dominant political, social and cultural orders[15].

Both exploitation cinema and the New French Extremity are characterized in large part by their transgressive attitudes towards depicting violence and sex.

Politics and Controversy

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While films associated with the New French Extremity are unified by their transgressive content, critics and scholars have also highlighted their tendency to incorporate social and political themes[16][17][18]. According to film scholar Tim Palmer, “[the New French Extremity] offers incisive social critiques, portraying contemporary society as isolating, unpredictably horrific and threatening”[4].

Writer and film scholar Jon Towlson says that “the New French Extremity movement, [sic] can... be seen most significantly as a response to the rise of right-wing extremism in France during the last ten years..., a response that filmmakers are in the process of working through”[19].

Still, films of the New French Extremity do not appear to reflect a unified social or political platform. Some have been noted to include politically progressive commentary[20] while others have been called conservative, homophobic and fascistic[21].

Critics disagree as to whether the sensational nature of many New French Extremity films disqualifies them as legitimate expressions of social, political and philosophical commentary[19]Towlson, “New French Extremity”. Some critics and scholars have judged the movement’s treatment of such themes positively [18]; others have dismissed it as tacked on, miscalculated or even offensive[22].

Several films associated with the New French Extremity have generated significant controversy upon their premieres[23]. Irréversible and Trouble Every Day, which respectively debuted at the 2002 and 2001 Cannes Film Festivals, were noteworthy for prompting widespread walkouts among audience members[23]. Martyrs was received similarly upon its debut at Cannes 2008, with audience members reportedly walking out, fainting, vomiting and bursting into tears[24][25][26].

Frontiere(s)

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In a positive review of Xavier Gens’ Frontiere(s), New York Times film critic Manhola Dargis notes the film’s exploitative tendencies while also crediting its “amusingly glib and timely political twist”[27]. In the film, a group of French-Arab youths flees a riotous Paris following the election of a far-right government, only to be pursued by a murderous family of militant white fascists. “There’s enough blood in the unrated french horror film Frontiere(s) to satiate even the most ravenous gore hounds,” Dargis says[27]. “The real surprise here is that this creepy, contemporary gross-out also has some ideas, visual and otherwise, wedged among its sanguineous drips...”[27]. While Dargis ultimately regards the film’s political convictions in a positive light, she notes that certain scenes veer “dangerously close to the unpardonable, with images that evoke the Holocaust too strongly”[27].

Like Dargis, Village Voice critic Jim Ridley acknowledged Frontiere(s)’s political themes[28]. Ridley, however, is less favorable of the movie, describing it as “vigorously art-directed torture porn”[28]. Comparing it to other films in the New French Extremity (specifically Haute Tension, Sheitan and À l'intérieur), he says Frontiere(s) takes “the most bluntly political tack yet.” It is “both hysterical and muddled,” even when interpreted as satire[28].

Director Gens was himself vocal about the film’s intended socio-political message. Asked in one interview about his inspiration for Frontiere(s), Gens said: “It came from the events in 2002, when we had the presidential elections [in France ]. There was an extreme right party in the second round. That was the most horrible day of my life. The idea of Frontiere(s) came to me then...”[29].

Martyrs

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Pascal Laugier’s Martyrs was the subject of similar contention upon its debut at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival, where early reporting highlighted viewers’ divergent reactions to the film’s violence and socio-philosophical pretensions. Anton Bitel of Britain’s Film4 praised the film, saying it “eludes the ‘torture porn’ label precisely by questioning what those terms might mean, what appeal they might possibly have, and what questions - fundamental, even metaphysical questions - they might answer”[30]. Jamie Graham of Total Film called Martyrs “one of the most extreme pictures ever made, and one of the best horror movies of the last decade”[5]. He also likened it to “a torture-porn movie for Guardian readers,” one that owed as much to Francis Bacon and Raphael as to its genre contemporaries[5]. By contrast, writer and film scholar Jon Towlson says Martyrs’ “political intentions are less overt, more ambivalent and ultimately nihilistic” compared to its contemporaries[19]. “Putting the audience ‘through it,’ ” he says, “is the film’s raison d’etre”[19]

Commenting on the controversy surrounding his film, director Laugier said he felt “insulted” by many critics’ misinterpretations of Martyrs[7]Carnevale, IndieLondon - Pascal Laugier interview.

Legacy and Influence

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The New French Extremity movement has influenced filmmakers in other countries, particularly in Europe, prompting some to suggest that a greater movement of European Extremity is afoot[31][32][33][34].

Some filmmakers associated with the New French Extremity have gone on to make mainstream horror films for major American studios. Alexandre Aja, director of France’s High Tension, went on to direct a remake of Wes Craven’s 1972 exploitation/revenge film The Hills Have Eyes. Xavier Gens, director of France’s Frontiere(s), had already directed a major Hollywood adaptation of the popular Hitman video game series when Frontiere(s) was released, and went on to make the english-language The Divide.

Films Influenced by New French Extremity

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Films Associated with New French Extremity

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Directors Associated with New French Extremity

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References

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  1. ^ MUBI, “New French Extremity + Influences”
  2. ^ a b c d e f Smith, “Confronting Mortality...” Part 2
  3. ^ a b Smith, “Confronting Mortality...” Part 1
  4. ^ a b Palmer, 22
  5. ^ a b c Graham, “Art meets gorno...”
  6. ^ a b c Kermode, “How much pain...”
  7. ^ a b c Carnevale, IndieLondon - Pascal Laugier interview
  8. ^ a b Bloody Disgusting, “Interview...”
  9. ^ Williams 1991 - Re-published in Braudy and Cohen 2009, 602, 604
  10. ^ Williams 1991 - Re-published in Braudy and Cohen 2009, 602
  11. ^ Williams 1991 - Re-published in Braudy and Cohen 2009, 605
  12. ^ Williams 2001
  13. ^ Modleski 1986 - Re-published in Braudy and Cohen 2009, 620
  14. ^ Ibid.
  15. ^ See, for example, Gibron, “ ‘Frontiere(s)’ Follows...” and Tobias, “The New Cult Canon...”
  16. ^ Barry, “Finding The French...”
  17. ^ Johnson
  18. ^ a b Palmer
  19. ^ a b c d Towlson, “New French Extremity”
  20. ^ For example, “The Transfiguration of...”
  21. ^ See, for example, Towlson, “New French Extremity”; Knegt, IndieWire - Gaspar Noe interview
  22. ^ See, for example, Ridley
  23. ^ a b Palmer, 27
  24. ^ Jones, “Martyrs”
  25. ^ Griffiths, Eye for Film - Pascal Laugier interview
  26. ^ Turek, Shock Till You Drop - Pascal Laugier interview
  27. ^ a b c d Dargis, “After Making It Out...”
  28. ^ a b c Ridley, “Xavier Gens’s...”
  29. ^ Amner, Eye for Film - Xavier Gens interview
  30. ^ Bitel, “Martyrs”
  31. ^ Roxborough, “Sicker, Darker...”
  32. ^ AintItCoolNews - Pascal Laugier interview
  33. ^ Nayman, CinemaScope - Ben Wheatley interview
  34. ^ Henderson, CBS, “Movie Blog...”

Bibliography

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  • Amner, D. (October 24, 2007). Horror’s new Frontiere(s). Eye for Film. Access date: April 7, 2012.
  • Barry, R. (February 12, 2012). Finding the French Gothic: The Monk Reviewed. The Quietus. Access date: March 19, 2012.
  • Bitel, A. (Date unknown). Martyrs - Review. Film4. Access date: April 27, 2012.
  • ”Bloody-Disgusting.com Interviwe [sic] - Frontiere(s): Writer/Director Xavier Gens.” BloodyDisgusting. Access date: March 19, 2012.
  • Carnevale, R. (Date unknown.) Martyrs - Pascal Laugier interview. indieLondon. Access date: April 27, 2012.
  • Dargis, M. (May 9, 2008). After Making It Out of Paris, Finding There’s No Escape - Frontiere(s) (2007) Movie Review. The New York Times. Access date: March 19, 2012).
  • Gibron, B. (May 16, 2008). ‘Frontiere(s)’ Follows Familiar Fear Formula. Pop Matters. Access date: April 25, 2012.
  • Graham, J. (March 16, 2009). Martyrs - Art meets gorno.... Total Film. Access date: April 17, 2012.
  • Griffiths, L. (March 26, 2009). This is hardcore.... Eye for Film. Access date: April 20, 2012.
  • Henderson, E. (April 21, 2012). Movie Blog: MSPIFF, Day 10: ‘Memorial Day,’ ‘Kill List’. ‘’CBS Minnesota’’. Access date: April 25, 2012).
  • Johnson, B. (Date unknown). Disavowing ‘’The Isle’’: Masochism and New Extremity. Keele University - Academia.edu. Access date: April 25, 2012.
  • Jones, A. (Date unknown). Martyrs - 2008. Film4 Frightfest. Access date: April 20, 202.
  • Kermode, M. (March 30, 2009). How much pain can you take? BBC - Kermode Uncut. Access date: April 7, 2012).
  • Knegt, P. (December 12, 2009). Decade: Gaspar Noe on “Irreversible.” IndieWire. Access date: April 27, 2012.
  • Modleski, T. (1986). The Terror of Pleasure: The Contemporary Horror Film and Postmodern Theory.” Studies in Entertainment, Bloomington: Indiana University Press. Re-published in Braudy, L. and Cohen, M. (2009). Film Theory & Criticism, New York: Oxford University Press.
  • Nayman, A. (Date unknown). Interview | Hammer Horror: Bill Wheatley’s Kill List. Cinema Scope. Accessed April 25, 2012.
  • “New French Extremity + Influences,” MUBI.com. Access date: March 19, 2012.
  • Palmer, T. (2006). Style and Sensation in the Contemporary French Cinema of the Body. Journal of Film and Video, Fall 2006, 58(3), pp. 22-32.
  • Ridley, J. (May 6, 2008). Xavier Gens’ Frontiere(s). The Village Voice. Access date: March 19, 2012.
  • Roxborough, S. (February 20, 2011). Sicker, Darker, More Twisted: The New European Horror Film at Berlin. The Hollywood Reporter. Access date: April 25, 2012.
  • Smith, M. (June 6, 2011). Confronting Mortality: “The New French Extremity”, the ‘’Hostel’’ Series and Outdated Terminology. ‘’The Split Screen’’ (Part 1 of 3). Access date: March 19, 2012.
  • Smith, M. (June 28, 2011). Confronting Mortality: “The New French Extremity”, the ‘’Hostel’’ Series and Outdated Terminology. ‘’The Split Screen’’ (Part 2 of 3). Access date: March 19, 2012.
  • Tobias, S. (December 9, 2010). New New Cult Canon, Martyrs. A.V. Club. Access date: April 13, 2012.
  • Towlson, J. (September 5, 2011). New French Extremity. Shocks to the System - Subversive Horror Films. Access date: March 19, 2012.
  • ”The Transfiguration of Horror: Pascal Laugier’s Martyrs and the Violence of the Real.” MLM Mayhem! Marxist-Leninist-Maoist Reflections. Access date: April 27, 2012.
  • Turek, R. (June 22, 2008). Exclusive Interview: Martyrs Director Pascal Laugier. Shock Till You Drop. Access date: April 17, 2012.
  • Williams, L. (1991). Film Bodies: Gender, Genre, and Excess. Film Quarterly, 44(4), pp. 2-12. Re-published in Braudy, L. and Cohen, M. (2009). Film Theory & Criticism, New York: Oxford University Press.
  • Williams, L. (2001). Cinema and the Sex Act. Cineast, Winter 2001, 27(1).
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