For as long as she can remember, horror films have fulfilled Coralie Fargeat's cinematic and cinephile dreams and visions. She cites David Cronenberg and John Carpenter as her biggest influences when she was thinking about becoming a director at the age of 16. Which even today increases the difficulties of entering the industry as a woman and financing a film.

That would partly explain why between her first short film (The telegram2003) and her first feature film (Revenge2017); and exactly 10 years since her second short film, Reality+ (2014), where she was able to explore the themes and forms that interested her, and her second feature film, The substancewhich premiered at the Cannes Film Festival and won the Best Screenplay award after a 13-minute ovation and general gratitude for bringing back a legendary star of the 1990s, Demi Moore.

“The two films Reality+ And The substance“They are related because they revolve around the idea that there will always be a better version of you,” explains the director, still euphoric after the premiere of her film in Cannes. “We always dream of becoming better because everything around us makes us feel like we’re not good enough, or that we’ll always be a worse version of ourselves until we reach perfection, or what we call perfection.”

Physical, verbal and emotional violence against women, the effort required, the degradation, the self-hatred and the obstacles that women impose on themselves are at the heart of Fargeat's work, a director who likes to provoke as much as she entertains in the hope of creating a small to bring about change.

“Before we didn't have so many options, but today in French cinema alone other directors talk about women and our bodies in different ways, Julia Ducournau (titanium), Noémie Merlant with Les Femmes on the balcony… I think it's great that we have so much impact and the opportunity to share what we have inside us, but we have to keep tearing down the wall and rebuilding it by putting the bricks back in a different order.” , she says, laughing.

For as seriously as she speaks, Fargeat does not lose sight of the need to do so through entertainment. “That's why horror is the best way to talk about certain topics because it allows you to be excessive and let your madness run wild,” she explains. The way the female body is observed, judged and criticized is violent, “that's why the body horror genre is best suited to show this violence.” Without sparing on blood, guts or gore.

In The substanceMoore is a former fitness TV star who is desperate to continue being seen with desire. She orders a mysterious product called “the substance” that will (literally) create a better and younger version of herself (Margaret Qualley). The film is about verbal, psychological and emotional violence, self-inflicted violence due to the need for validation, which becomes even more complicated after the age of 40.

“Dennis Quaid plays the embodiment of this violence. (His character) is a symbol of situations that we are still experiencing and I did not want to part with that, because these comments and insults are the mirror in which we look at ourselves and the way we torture ourselves ” Bodies are a reflection of this external violence,” Fargeat continues.

The idea for The substance came to light when Fargeat, at the age of 40, realized that she was letting herself be carried away by dangerous ideas. “I thought that because of my age it was the end, that I would no longer have a place in society, that I no longer meant anything to anyone… I am an educated woman, a feminist, and yet these thoughts came to mind. “ she thinks. “I wanted to talk about how difficult it is to accept the passage of time, the myth of Dorian Gray on all levels. I'm talking about age, but also about not accepting the idea of ​​the perfect body… This has happened to me at every stage of my life. When you're young your ass isn't good and your tits aren't good either, you grow up and your tits look good to you but another part of your body doesn't look good… That comes from what we get outside, from the male gaze that has structured our world. Other looks have begun to enter the equation, but it’s not enough.”

When she began writing the script, she knew she needed a leading lady who was “a myth and a symbol.” Moore, an icon of the 1990s, embodied the message of The substance. “I thought of her after reading her autobiography, which I recommend,” says Fargeat. “I discovered a strong woman who was extremely innovative, intelligent, instinctive and always exceptional for her time, and I realized that she would perfectly understand that this story goes beyond the norm.”

Moore accepted the role immediately. “She was willing to take the risk of exposing herself so much, of taking off her clothes; She trusted me and I think she immediately recognized that I could do something very powerful for her as an actress.”

For the star of striptease And Indecent suggestion, The substance means a new stage and focusing not on her as a mature woman forgotten by the industry – “not to be a victim”, as she said in Cannes – but on the problem itself and those responsible for it.

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