
The Feminine Monstrous in The Substance by Coralie Fargeat
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French filmmaker Coralie Fargeat made a name for herself with her 2017 debut, Revenge, which showcased her penchant for raw violence and politically charged feminist themes. Through a hardcore revenge story, Fargeat opens up a cutthroat conversation about rape culture and women’s resistance to violence. However, her latest effort, The Substance, marks her breakthrough.
The film has been the talk of the 2024 awards season since its world premiere in the main competition at the 77th Cannes Film Festival, where Fargeat won the award for Best Screenplay. The Substance‘s undisputed star is Demi Moore. Indeed, she gives one of her best screen performances, earning her first Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy (and almost certainly a foreseeable nomination for the upcoming 97th Academy Awards).
How long does stardom last? How far must a woman go to earn acceptance? And how does this relentless pursuit affect her sense of self? Written, directed, co-edited, and co-produced entirely by Fargeat, The Substance challenges societal perceptions and expectations of women and inspires long-overdue change. With a Black Mirror-like atmosphere, the film’s body horror and sci-fi elements feel eerily close to reality.
- The Gilded Cage
- Have You Ever Dreamed Of a Better Version of Yourself?
- When Beauty Becomes Currency
- The Cult of Perfectionism
- To Be a Woman Is to Perform
- Body Horror and Other Directorial Choices
- Food as Flesh
- A Future Cult Classic
The Gilded Cage
Remember, there is no she and you. You are one. Respect the balance, and you won’t have any more inconveniences.
The Substance
Set in an unspecified time, The Substance seamlessly blends influences from the 1950s with contemporary elements. Demi Moore plays Elisabeth Sparkle, the successful host of “Sparkle It Up,” an aerobics TV show that seems inspired by Jane Fonda’s 1980s exercise videos. After turning 50, Elisabeth finds that the youthful charm that made her famous has worn off. Indeed, her producer, Harvey (Dennis Quaid), fires her without warning. Elizabeth has always based her identity on celebrity status – cemented in the Hollywood Walk of Fame star with engraved name – leaving her with a fragile confidence and a shattered sense of self.
Facing the brutal end of her career, the protagonist experiences a life-changing opportunity. That is, she comes across a mysterious black-market drug called “The Substance,” which will replicate her cells to create a younger, more beautiful, and ultimately better version of herself. The drug comes with strict instructions on how to administer the injection and care for the body double, as the two versions of herself switch consciousness weekly. This balance is crucial to the drug’s effectiveness.
Have You Ever Dreamed Of a Better Version of Yourself?
Elisabeth is desperate to regain the glory of her heyday, so she injects the green liquid into her bloodstream. After enduring excruciating pain, she collapses to the floor. Her spine rips open to reveal Sue (Margaret Qualley), a seductive, doll-like figure. Sue becomes Elisabeth’s new vessel, offering her a second chance to regain her place in Hollywood. Indeed, with her fresh and youthful appearance, she soon takes over Elisabeth as the host of the aerobics TV show “Pump It Up.” Obsessive close-ups of Sue’s body from every angle represent the sexualization of women in the film industry and show business. Thereby they illustrate how the female form has value only if it satisfies the male gaze in a society that sets impossible standards for women and creates competition.
The Substance quickly escalates into a gore-slasher spectacle as Sue begins to eat away at Elisabeth’s body, ignoring the seven-day schedule to pursue her dreams of success and admiration. As the transformation spirals out of control, the line between Elisabeth and Sue becomes blurred. What’s more, their actions lead to increasingly dire consequences, culminating in the creation of a monstrous creature that embodies the image of tortured femininity.
Touchingly, these narrative choices reinforce the idea that women continue to be seen as inadequate and are, therefore, driven to sacrifice their well-being for the sake of societal validation and approval.
When Beauty Becomes Currency
The Substance stems from a profoundly personal vision in Fargeat’s mind. Indeed, with a strong political and feminist undertone, the director uses the medium of film to critique society’s harmful beauty standards and their detrimental effects on women, especially as they age. In particular, Fargeat explores how these pressures shape women’s sense of worth, power, and success.
Sharing Fargeat’s concerns about ageism and its impact on her career, Demi Moore drew on her experiences to better connect with her character, helping her to deliver an authentic and emotional performance. The film takes this theme to the extreme, using brutal language and graphic violence to bring about a radical change in perspective, starting with the audience.
As depicted in the film and discussed in feminist author Naomi Wolf‘s The Beauty Myth (1990), beauty often becomes a commodity, used to profit and reinforce an unbalanced power dynamic between men and women. In The Substance, Elisabeth’s appeal has an expiration date. Sue quickly replaces her, illustrating how women’s worth is reduced to their physical appearance and driven by the demand for youth and beauty within a patriarchal framework.
The Cult of Perfectionism
Sue is precisely the product of an extreme cult of perfectionism, reminiscent of the role of Nina in Darren Aronofsky‘s Black Swan (2010), who pursues her obsession with becoming a perfect ballet dancer at the expense of her health, sanity, and ultimately her own life. A parallel can be drawn with the final scene of these films. Indeed, they both end with a close-up of the protagonist lying dead on the ground under the faint glow of the spotlight, representing the price they both had to pay to stand under that same light. Something similar happens in Robert Zemeckis‘ Death Becomes Her (1992). With a sarcastic take on the desire for eternal youth, the film sheds light on the objectification of women’s bodies and the internalization of attractiveness as a parameter of self-worth.
To Be a Woman Is to Perform
It is no coincidence that the protagonist of The Substance is a television performer, reflecting the pressure on women to conform to societal expectations and perform under the scrutiny of an ever-present male gaze. Fargeat’s grotesque depiction of this male gaze is a satire of a system that often perceives women as objects of male desire and consumption. She often frames male characters with a wide lens and points the camera downward, casting a distorted and judgmental gaze on their faces. Fargeat powerfully underscores the toll this gaze takes on women’s sense of self. All of this shows up vividly when Elisabeth examines her reflection in the mirror as she applies makeup, always unhappy with her appearance. Her obsessive gaze makes this one of the most chilling scenes without relying on any articulated visual effect.
Body Horror and Other Directorial Choices
The Substance is mainly a visual work: of the 130 script pages, only 29 contain dialog. With visual effects, the director builds a chaotic crescendo that leads to the final appearance of the Monstro Elisasue, a terrifying creature whose body parts are all misplaced. She glues on a mask of Elisabeth with a red-lipped smile, still trying to satisfy the expectations of her audience. Disgust and horror meet her relentless attempt to conquer the audience. “Freak!” they shout at her: she has now become an outcast, existing far outside the conventional definition of beauty and femininity.
With her trusted cinematographer Benjamin Kračun, Fargeat has built a modern LA scenario out of her Paris studios. Together, they have created a gut-wrenching madness that has no room for CGI effects. “The movie is really about flesh and bones; it’s about women’s bodies,” says the director, explaining why she decided to use realistic prosthetics and SFX makeup. This choice helped make the film feel more fleshy and visceral, giving the audience a raw visual journey. The ability to get closer shots of the fake prosthetic bodies helped reinforce the essence of body horror, which lies in the depiction of disturbing and unnatural creatures. David Cronenberg is a master of body horror, and The Substance draws clear inspiration from his films, such as Shivers (1975) and Rabid (1977).
The director has used various shooting techniques, including helmet cameras, handheld cameras, and crane shots, to create a nightmarish atmosphere. Much like The Shining (1980), where the intricate corridors of the Overlook Hotel add to the tension, the sets of The Substance – from Elisabeth’s apartment to the TV studio to the garage where the substance is stored – feature long, narrow, labyrinthine corridors that evoke a suffocating sense of inescapability.
Food as Flesh
The manipulation of food in The Substance intensifies the physical violence, making the film all the more horrifying to watch. Indeed, the first shot, of an egg yolk being injected with a chemical substance and splitting in two, sets the stage for the film’s symbolic visuals.
Moreover, Elisabeth uses food to counteract her frustration with Sue’s ungrateful success, indulging in overconsumption or aggressively stuffing a turkey as if to ravage Sue’s youthful body symbolically. The sound design intensifies the repulsiveness of the eating scenes, especially Harvey’s voracious consumption of shrimp, which immediately became one of the most recognizable scenes. It hints at his treatment of women: chewing them up, draining them of their vitality, and discarding them when they no longer serve his purposes. Coralie Fargeat makes a disturbing connection between women and food, commenting on how our society oversexualizes women, reducing them to “pieces of meat” and ultimately dehumanizing them.
A Future Cult Classic
In conclusion, with a twisted storyline and a remarkable cast, The Substance stands out among the film productions of 2024, and rumor has it that it will likely become a cult classic of the body horror genre. Its original production budget is $17.5 million, but its worldwide gross has soared to $78.3 million, making it Mubi’s most successful release.
The Substance has emerged as an undeniable critical and commercial success. However, it has sparked a heated debate, especially on social media. Audiences’ reactions have been sharply divided and influenced mainly by a gendered perspective. While women have hailed the film as a sharp feminist critique, men, on the whole, do not seem to have enjoyed their moviegoing experience.
Often dismissed by many male audiences as a shallow dark comedy, the film strikes a deeper chord with women, who feel seen and understood by Fargeat’s unusual portrayal of women’s struggles within a patriarchal system.
Nevertheless, a graphic, disturbing story like The Substance serves to unsettle audiences, forcing all genders to question their own beliefs and disrupt the conventional norms that shape them.
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