'Substance' portrays in fiction what exists in real world: French filmmaker Coralie Fargeat

New Delhi, Oct 30 (PTI) French filmmaker Coralie Fargeat says the violence in "Substance", her Cannes breakout horror drama about how women's bodies are judged, depicts the power dynamics that are "very much alive in our societies" through fiction.

In the film, Hollywood star Demi Moore plays Elisabeth Sparkle, a fitness icon who is laid off from her TV show when she turns 50. A desperate Sparkle turns to the Substance, a black market product that helps her spawn a younger version, called Sue. But they must alternate their existence in the world.

"Substance" was one of the most talked about titles at the Cannes Film Festival in May where it won the award for the best screenplay and received an 11-minute standing ovation. The movie is set to be released on MUBI India on Thursday.

Fargeat, who often uses genre tropes like horror and revenge to tell feminist stories, said she is having fun challenging those who are used to "one vision of the world".

"I love to kind of put this vision in the face of everyone, but in a way that's going to be so strong that it's going to say, 'Okay, I don't think this should be the only vision that should exist'.

"So, the violence of the movie is really about showing this on screen and showing, in my opinion, the actual states of the world and the power dynamics that are still very much alive in our societies... It's portraying into fiction, in a kind of grotesque way, what exists in our real world," Fargeat told PTI in a virtual interview from Paris.

Asked what prompted her to cast Moore, the star of '90s thrillers such as "Disclosure", "Ghost", "Striptease" and "Indecent Proposal", to play Sparkle, Fargeat said the film needed an "iconic actress".

"To me, the figure of the actress in the movie is there to represent every woman. And to play that role, I knew that I needed and wanted some kind of iconic actress that represents this in herself," the director said.

But the first time Moore's name came up in the casting process, Fargeat told her team, "I think she will never be okay to do a movie like that." "I really thought it wouldn't be something she would ever consider because I was used to her going to very different sorts of movies. When I heard that she responded to the film, I was quite intrigued.

"That's why we met many times to discuss the movie, the specificity of the filmmaking, the extremity of the process and the fact that the movie was going to be bold and to be very violent and to go all the way in. And when I understood that she wasn't afraid of that, and she decided to trust the filmmaking process and invested with her emotional baggage of her performance, I felt like I had found my Elizabeth Sparkle." Fargeat believes that Moore was at a phase in her life where she had confronted all these issues already and could "talk about them through fiction".

The filmmaker, who is part of the Collectif 50/50, a group working on gender equality in French cinema, rose to prominence with the 2017 film "Revenge", a violent rape revenge drama that sparked a debate after it premiered at the Toronto Film Festival.

She started working on "Substance", her second feature, about five years ago. "When I do a movie, I have a very specific vision of the way I want to do it and the way I want to push everything to the extreme. And that's how I think I managed to bring everyone on board to work with me on fulfilling this vision." A Working Title Films production, "The Substance" also stars Margaret Qualley, Hugo Diego Garcia, Phillip Schurer and Joseph Balderrama. PTI BK RB RB