Finding Critical Value in New French Extremity

Throughout film history, France has proven to be the source for influential film movements. From cinema verite to the French New Wave, French film makers have created some of the most critically acclaimed film movements that changed, multiple times, film as an art form. However, never before has France experienced a cultural identity crisis in which concerns of the global market clashes with the type of art cinema that France is known for. Through this crisis, a new movement has emerged which melds both art cinema and appeal to international audiences, while also pushing the boundaries of film making. Coined by Artforum author James Quandt, the New French Extremity is a movement that is “willfully transgressive.” (Quandt 127) The movement which has emerged within the last 20 years, features intense subject matter highlighted by both traditional narratives as well as experimental design. 

 

While this movement continues to push the boundaries of film making with clear results, critics seem to pan over the films due to the intense subject matter depicted in an unforgiving way. Many film scholars and critics, including Quandt “cite the films... merely to castigate their graphic content, dismiss their artistic agendas as disingenuous, and deride their alleged pretentiousness” (Palmer 26) These statements, made by critics, raise the question as to where the line between artistic value and exploitation occurs, or if it even exists. Regardless of whether or not this line exists, there is both artistic and critical value to be found within the New French Extremity movement and films that belong to it.

What dictates the artistic value of the film and does it devalue it through it's transgressive nature? Film, by nature, has always been a bit transgressive. Landmark films such as Spike Lee's Do The Right Thing (1989) and Arthur Penn's Bonnie and Clyde (1967) were considered controversial at the time of their releases. Even Star Wars (1977) which chose to put the credits at the end of the film rather than the beginning landed George Lucas flak from the Hollywood traditionalist film making world. Yet at some point, the films cross over into a realm of exploitation. Some of the most controversial films of the Blaxploitation drama are still considered exploitative by today's standards (Melvin Van Peeble's Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song [sic])

History has, undoubtedly, produced some of cinema's most controversial films, many of which sacrifice artistic value due to the content on the screen. Arguably, the two most noteworthy films that have succeeded in crossing from art into exploitative trash do so at the expense of live animals which are graphically murdered on screen: Ruggero Deodato's Cannibal Holocaust (1980) and Tun Fei Mou's Men Behind the Sun (1988). The sacrifice of a living being is the push into pure exploitation, yet many critics hold New French Extremity films to the same regards as these animal snuff films.

Films belonging to the New French Extremity movement, such as Gasper Noe's Irreversible (2002), Claire Denis' Trouble Every Day (2001)and Bruno Dumont's Twentynine Palms(2003) often carry great intellectual and artistic value, with a clear theme that flows under all of them, yet are often ignored due to the way in which the values are presented. “The intellectual content is... overshadowed by the films' physical force structures.” (Hagman 38) These films often present a deeper meaning than popular Hollywood films, yet simply due to the intrusiveness of the content critics and scholars alike resist the films. 

 

Even with critical scorn aside, these films have quickly gained an audience through the international festival circuit. A number of New French Extremity films have premiered at Cannes Film Festival, and have remained popular with international audiences. With a clear audience, as well as clear artistic value, these films deserve critical attention. 

These films are met with, most clearly, confusion in the critical world. “By mixing traditional art-filmic markers with exploitation and genre elements, the films do not conform to any ready-made critical categories.” (Hagman 37) It is through this reasoning that critics may take on the films in a cautious way. The films, which are extremely grim and usually depict the human animal as a vehicle for bodily horror, resist the urge to conform to traditional cinematic forms. “...critics and scholars have built entrenched positions around the notion that cinema should either infuriate or placate.” (Palmer 26) New French Extremity excels in depicting the brutality of human nature, stripped down to it's basic form, in an almost disturbingly experimental and impersonal way that it becomes impossible to place in such categories. 

 

These films are designed to induce powerful emotions from the viewer. Not only do they often tackle intense issues involving sexuality, violence and a mesh of the two, but they utilize arthouse form to generate numerous powerful emotions. For example, Noe's Irreversible opens with a dizzying camera that rotates around, creating heavy vertigo. The colors mesh together and become reminiscent of various experimental works that rely heavily on the use of blending colors as vehicles for artistic value. This varied and often times violent camera continues as the story unfolds in reverse. The film opens outside of a homosexual fetish club with ambulances and police swarming. The main characters are introduced: one lies beaten and bloodied on a stretcher and the other apprehended by the police. Moments later, the audience sees what led to this. The main characters brutally beat a man to death with a fire extinguisher (in one of cinema's most notorious and violent scenes). It is not until the story reverts further that the audience sees what caused this destruction. The main characters' female friend, Alex, is brutally raped and beaten.

Suddenly, the varied and violent camera stops and presents one of the most intense and painful longshots ever filmed. The 9 minute scene features a motionless camera pulled back to reveal the entire sequence taking place. “...a single take static camera watches from floor level as Alex...is raped, with her suffering face visible in the foreground throughout” (Keesey 96) This framing, is the decisive point in which the film features less violent camera movements, forces the viewer to sit and watch the dark power of the human animal. As the film continues to unfold it becomes clear that Alex was pregnant, thus further damning the audience to emotional distress.

The mise-en-scene is not the only tool by which Noe creates emotional and physiological distress. “For sixty minutes of its running time, a barely perceptible but aggravating bass rumble was recorded...at 27 hertz... [that induces] unease, and after prolonged exposure, physical nausea.” (Palmer 29) This tone increases the discomfort created by both the narrative as well as the experimental camera movements. It is for this reason that Irreversible is hard to critique. It becomes hard to sit through, not out of boredom, but sheer discomfort and pain.

The New French Extremity movement also tends to cross boundaries of various social movements such as feminism. Pascal Laugiers' Martyrs (2008) has been judged for destroying the female form while still being “lesbian chic” (Whittle 1) The film features a cult that believes that suffering through torture is a path to enlightenment. As a result, they kidnap a well-meaning girl to torture her relentlessly. At the surface, the extreme violence caused by males to the female form may seem exploitative and almost reminiscent of traditional Hollywood slasher films. 

 

What the film actually does is reconsider violence towards women, thus transforming a seemingly anti-female film into a feminist one. “Laugier forces the viewer to question pop culture's views concerning acceptable types of violence...Laugier subverts this tendency towards the viewer experiencing a voyeuristic thrill through his unflinching depiction of Anna [the main character's] suffering” (Green 23) This challenges the very Hollywood way of making horror films.

This anti-Hollywood film style is almost reminiscent of the French New Wave, which sought to move cinema away from the studio system and into a more realistic sphere. Yet New French Extremity is post-national in nature. Many of these films, Martyrs and Irreversible included reference and draw from various other international cinematic forms. This harkens back to basic Cahiers du Cinema viewpoints. “The Cahiers critics were very open about their love for American films... when they later went on to become directors-auteurs- of the nouvelle vague they would quote freely from the films they had studied.” (Hagman 35) This is seen clearly in Godard's Breathless (1960) where the main character mimics Humphrey Bogart's mannerisms. Thus, New French Extremity has striking similarities to various other major film movements within France. 

 

In fact one of the landmark horror films of France, Georges Franju's Eyes Without a Face can be looked at as the jumping off point for French bodily horror. The film graphically depicts a face transplant and deals with intense subject matter such as child mutilation. New French Extremity has much more of a link to traditional French cinema than that of “torture porn” popular in Hollywood, which receive horrible critical reaction due to both graphic exploitative scenes and poor film making techniques. 

 

With other films in the New French Extremity movement resorting to progressive types of techniques similar to that of Irreversible to further push their themes, it becomes clear why critics and scholars may veer away from the genre. The very thing artistic value that makes the films successful is the very thing that pushes those who would find the value away.

Although, these films do hold a weight within the film making community. The films explicitly have had an impact on international cinema. Other films have been met with similar critical distaste such as Lars Von Triers' Antichrist (2009) which features an arthouse film style and a sexually violent narrative has been assaulted for “inherently misogyrustic [sic]” (Green 2) This assault is not unlike the one against Laugier's Martyrs. Japan's Takashi Miike Audition (1999) has been met with critical distaste for his style of Japanese exploitation cinema. These international films could easily fall under the banner of New French Extremity. All hold tremendous intellectual and artistic values, yet suffer from the same critical negligence that films like Irreversible experience.

Even when facing critical discourse, these films are all successful within the cinematic world. They all meet a cult audience who embrace them. Some seek transgressive style films, while others seek to chronicle the further evolution of French cinema. With “torture porn” films remain popular in Hollywood, the Extremity movement will be met with broader audiences. This allows these hybrid arthouse films to flourish within the international market, allowing for France to continue its dominance as the artistic center for cinema. While the New French Extremity may never reach a worldwide mainstream audience, it will be met with legions of cinephiles seeking to witness a movement akin to the French New Wave. It is through this cult atmosphere, and not the resistant critical community, that the movement will remain strong and carry a legacy regardless of it's transgressive nature. 

Works Cited:

 Austin, Guy. Contemporary French Cinema : An Introduction. Manchester, UK; New York; New York: Manchester University Press ; Distributed exclusively in the USA by Palgrave Macmillan, 2008. /z-wcorg/. Web.

Beugnet, Martine. Cinema and Sensation : French Film and the Art of Transgression. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 2007. /z-wcorg/. Web.

"Flesh & Blood: Sex and Violence in Recent French Cinema." Artforum International 42.6 (2004): 126-32. Web.

Green, Amy M. (2011) “The French Horror Film Martyrs and the Destruction, Defilement, and Neutering of the Female Form” Journal of Popular Film and Television, 39” 1, 20-28

GREEN, NICHOLAS. "The New French New Wave?" Bright Lights Film Journal.67 (2010): 1-4. Web.

Hagman, Hampus. "‘Every Cannes Needs its Scandal’: Between Art and Exploitation in Contemporary French Film." Film International (16516826) 5.5 (2007): 32-41. Web.

Keesey, Douglas. "Split Identification: Representations of Rape in Gaspar noé's Irréversible and Catherine Breillat's A Ma Sæur!/Fat Girl." Studies in European Cinema 7.2 (2010): 95-107. Web.

Palmer, Tim. "Style and Sensation in the Contemporary French Cinema of the Body." Journal of Film & Video 58.3 (2006): 22-32. Web.

Wittle, Peter. “Martyrs” The Sunday Times. <http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/film/film_reviews/article5975859.ece> March 29, 2009. Web.