Revenge ( 2017 ) is a kind of movie Nicolas Winding Refn would masturbate to
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Obviously I watched Revenge because it was directed by Coralie Fargeat, the director of current world-wide phenomenon The Substance. Even though Revenge is her directorial debut, I didn't not think it would be a bad film going into it, based on what I know about The Substance. And my expectations were pretty much met exactly.
Similarly to The Substance, Revenge is brutally violent, with closeups of wounds and straight up body-horror. The movie has so much blood in it, people literally slip up on it. And similarly to The Substance the movie is unapologetically sexy.
The story kind of hangs on the visual sex appeal of the main character played by Matilda Lutz. If she wouldn't be ultra-hot, the plot would not happen. There are 3 other characters in the whole movie, a sexy macho dude played by Kevin Janssens ( that Fargeat made sure would be naked for a large portion of the film ), and 2 not so sexy, or even repulsive, dudes played by Vincent Colombe and Guillaume Bouchède.
Vincent Colombe by the way was cast in a short film by Fargeat few years before that movie. And judging by the premise, it was about him being not very pretty. So the use of the actor kind of continues through into this movie, which makes this vulnerability of his result in him raping Matilda Lutz's character, which kicks off the whole Revenge plot.
From then on it is kind of your typical Mad Max inspired survival action film, where a girl with very limited resources needs to survive a harsh desert. And kill 3 men. In another way it is a body-horror slasher movie. Where the killer is the girl.
Fargeat seems to be having the same technique when it comes to sex and violence, at least in this film, as Nicolas Winding Refn who's The Neon Demon is extremely similar to The Substance. And who's Too Old To Die Young kind of reminds this film, with its over the top brutality and sexuality. Though Refn is thematically a lot more complicated than Revenge in my opinion.
Refn often states that "violence is like sex, where the good part is before the climax". And this film seems to embrace this idea on both fronts. There is an insane sexual tension in the first act, where Fargeat ( who is also a writer ) plays with the audience. And then throughout the film, Matilda Lutz's character is still lasted over with the camera like if it was a porn film or something. Never actually releasing this tension.
And the violence in the film also takes its time to build into a satisfying sound effect of meaty flesh bits being chop up, when somebody gets hurt. Therefor I think Refn would enjoy this movie quite a lot.
The film has a few showy bits, I would say. Toward the end Fargeat does a very obviously showy long take. There are symbolisms of Freedom and stuff. Like when the main character brands herself with an eagle. Overall the direction is good, though I would say Fargeat had a few spacial continuity issues that were maybe done on purpose, but maybe not. It's her first feature film, it's hard to know for sure.
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