The film The Substance continued to thrill audiences just a few days after the Halloween celebrations. Released in cinemas on 6 November, the film directed by Coralie Fargeat deals with a subject that leaves no one indifferent: eternal youth.
Distressing, surprising, sad, joyful, disturbing… The Substance has the merit of stirring the emotions. This Franco-British-American horror drama, part of the body horror sub-genre characterised by acts that disturb the human body, was directed by Coralie Fargeat. The latter is best known for her feature film Revenge, presented at the Cannes Film Festival in 2017. Since its release on 6 November in French cinemas, The Substance has climbed to 6th place at the box office, dominated by L’Amour Ouf. A good start for this original script that leaves us glued to our seats.
Eternal youth: at what price?
The film tells the story of Elisabeth Sparkle, star of an aerobics show, who is sacked on her 50th birthday by her boss, who considers her too old. Depressed by this news, she receives a surprising and unexpected offer: a mysterious and experimental laboratory offers to test a substance that seems miraculous. The product would enable her to become a ‘better version’ of herself, ‘younger, more beautiful and more perfect’, thanks to cellular modification of her DNA.
The instructions are clear. All you have to do is inject the product once, stabilise yourself every day and switch every seven days. This chemical fountain of youth involves reintegrating and transferring your consciousness from one body to another every week. ‘It’s so simple, what could go wrong?’ teases the specialist platform Allociné in its synopsis. Twists and turns guaranteed…
A multi-award-winning film
The gamble paid off for this film, which was banned with a warning for under-12s and required no less than 21,000 litres of blood. All the more so as it has been eagerly awaited by the public since its presentation at Cannes last May. Shortlisted in the Official Competition for the Palme d’Or, The Substance won the 2024 Screenplay Prize.
The 2 hour and 20 minute feature film also won the European Film Award for Best Cinematographer, recognising the work of Benjamin Kracun. It also won the European Film Award for Best Visual Effects from the European Film Academy.
A profound theme adored by cinema
Although the cast includes actress Margaret Qualley and actors Dennis Quaid and Hugo Diego Garcia, The Substance stars Demi Moore (Ghost, Des hommes d’honneur, A armes égales, Charlie’s Angels: Angels Gone Wild, Indecent Proposal, Margin Call). The role is perfectly suited to this actress, who has repeatedly spoken out against the ageism suffered by artists in the film world and more generally in the professional world.
On 5 November last year, Demi Moore declared on the set of the C à vous programme: ‘There are standards imposed by society, but there is also a collective conscience which means that we have accepted that people of a certain age should be sidelined. In my opinion, if we really want to bring about change, it has to be through the way we behave, and not through what happens outside’.
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A few years ago, the actress revealed in People magazine: ‘I don’t [want] to be defined by a number but rather by my experience. You turn 59 and you’re already thinking, ‘Well, I’m going to be 60’. It’s very liberating. When I think of my grandmother at 60, she seemed resigned to her age in some ways. But in many ways I feel more alive and present than ever.’ It’s a wonderful life lesson about accepting the passage of time.
Cinema is no exception when it comes to highlighting this quest for youth and bodily perfection. And it has been doing so for decades. Chérie, je me sens rejjeunir by Howard Hawks (1952), La mort vous va si bien by Robert Zemeckis (1992), Requiem for a Dream by Darren Aronofsky (2000), Le Prix de l’éternité by David Jackson (2000)… Getting younger and ‘looking better’ never cease to inspire the 7th art. A subject that speaks to the general public, at a time when beauty injunctions are still very much present in society.
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Featured photo: © The Substance
