Scratching the Surface: For a Reappraisal of Violence in Contemporary French Cinema

Abstract

This essay investigates the aesthetic as well as social implications of the body in pain in three recent French films, namely Dans ma peau/In My Skin (Marina de Van, 2002), Grave/Raw (Julia Ducournau, 2016), and Revenge (Coralie Fargeat, 2018). While their discomfiting and graphic depiction of the body inscribes these films within the current trend of French “cinéma du corps,” this essay wishes to point out to the significant thematic shifts introduced by these works. Indeed, all three films are directed by women and portray female characters resorting to brutality and self-harm as part of a personal journey toward self-fulfillment. In so doing, these films not so much rely on some of the narrative and visual tropes of specific sub-genres of horror (cannibalism for Dans ma peau and Grave, the rape and revenge sub-genre for Revenge), as they subvert them. Indeed, the bodily scenarios introduced by the films all aim at pointing out to a gradual empowerment of the female characters, rather than signifying their powerlessness. In this regard, the various images of bodies being tortured, assaulted, and punctured bring an organic dimension to the somewhat smooth and sterile environment (the dehumanized corporate world of Dans ma peau, the North-African desert of Revenge, or the vet school in Grave). This stark contrast aims at reintroducing female subjectivity at the heart of the narrative, as the body in pain symbolizes these women’s refusal to conform to the sanitized version of the female body made popular by society. Their body is thus no longer a smooth surface ready to be seized, but a powerful tool towards liberation.