Revenge by Coralie Fargeat (2017) at Créteil International Films de Femmes Festival
By Moira Jean Sullivan
In a parallel section of the 44th Creteil International Women Film Festival this year (March 11-20) was a history of directors in different genres of cinema including horror. One of the latest films in the rape-revenge genre is simply called Revenge by Coralie Fargeat (2017). With a rich cinematography the film is set in a modern architectural villa in a desert landscape with long corridors and an outdoor pool.
Italian actress Ingrid Lutz plays Jen, a young aspiring actress who has been promised a career start in Los Angeles by her married boyfriend Richard. Her young bronze body clad in bikini seems to be a provocation to the cinema goer and to unannounced visitors – disturbing predators who arrive at the villa. A night of frivolous dancing leads the next day to rape, and Jen will not be placated by Richard’s plan to make it all go away. Her resistance leads to being pushed off a cliff, but she has a locket with dried scorpions and a cigarette lighter and manages to free herself from the branch that breaks her fall.
Jen turns into a woman of tremendous power of survival and is not only content in running away but in avenging her persecutors. In extraordinarily vivid scenes her feats under the influence of the dried scorpions are phenomenal, all set to a background of plastic vacuous advertisements of women, boxing matches and car races on the widescreen TV. This excellent film by Coralie Fargeat is exceptionally well-made and worthy of critical attention.
Movie Magazine International
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