Director Coralie Fargeat’s debut feature-length film was Revenge, a thriller about a woman who is sexually assaulted and gets, well, revenge upon her attackers. Her follow up, The Substance, follows the host of an aerobics TV show who gets fired on her 50th birthday and takes a drug to become a “younger, more beautiful, more perfect” version of herself. It stars Demi Moore and Margaret Qualley, who were asked by Dazed Digital to provide a Cronenbergian- / Lynchesque-like term to describe Fargeat’s films.
“Coralie pushes the envelope of reality,” Moore answered. “In Revenge, when the girl falls, you’re like: she couldn’t have lived through that. Then she gets up. Coralie creates totally unique worlds that are parallel to our own world.” Qualley had a more succinct (and, if you’ll forgive the pun, titillating) answer: “Fargeatian would be that it’s bloody. And there’s tits and butts.”
Put it on the poster: “The Substance! It’s Bloody, And There’s Tits And Butts.”
Fargeat also discussed the critical reaction to The Substance, which has mostly been positive, although not entirely. “I knew the movie was going to be polarizing because when you do strong choices, you provoke a strong reaction. I also knew some people would reject the statement the film makes,” she said. “These are things people wish didn’t exist anymore – but they’re still there.”
The Substance is out in theaters now.