Carte Blanche 30 years of Étrange - Coralie Fargeat
Born in 1976 in Paris, Coralie Fargeat, after studies at Science Po and a year at the Femis, directed her first short film in 2003: The Telegram, with Myriam Boyer, Arlette Tiphany and Stéphane Dausse. She then worked for TV: with Anne-Elisabeth Blateau she created Les Fées cloches (The Bell Fairies) a comedy mini-series for children in which they both acted, shown on TF1. After a second short film, Reality+, she directed her first feature film: Revenge, a feminist rape and revenge movie showing both a love of the genre and a desire to use its codes and stereotypes for more subversive purposes.
No more terrified scream-girls; her heroine is a survivor, a fighter who won’t let her rapist destroy her. It’s no surprise she’s part of the 50/50 collective, advocating for gender equality in cinema and audiovisual media. In 2024 Coralie Fargeat directed her first American movie The Substance, in which Demi Moore made a stunning comeback, and co-starring Margaret Qualley. The film was presented that same year in Cannes where it won the Best Screenplay Award. The Substance is a great Body horror moment - especially related to the female body - a biting satire, funny and disturbing, as potent in its discourse as in its horrific dimension. It’s a triumph, from the acknowledged references to her influences (from David Cronenberg to Brian Yuzna…) and the authentic creation of a personal world. Coralie Fargeat, along with Julia Ducournau, is the incarnation of women’s genre cinema. The revolution is under way.
