Raw (film)

Raw
Theatrical release poster
Directed byJulia Ducournau
Written byJulia Ducournau
Produced byJean de Forêts
Starring
CinematographyRuben Impens
Edited byJean-Christophe Bouzy
Music byJim Williams
Production
companies
  • Petit Film
  • Rouge International
  • Frakas Productions
  • Ezekiel Film Production
  • Wild Bunch
Distributed by
  • Wild Bunch (France)
  • O'Brother Distribution (Belgium)
Release dates
  • 14 May 2016 (2016-05-14) (Cannes)[1]
  • 15 March 2017 (2017-03-15) (Belgium and France)[2]
Running time
99 minutes[2]
Countries
  • France
  • Belgium
LanguageFrench
Budget
Box office$3.1 million[4]

Raw (French: Grave) is a 2016 coming-of-age body horror drama film written and directed by Julia Ducournau, and starring Garance Marillier, Ella Rumpf, and Rabah Nait Oufella.[5][6][7][8] The plot follows a young vegetarian's first year at veterinary school, where she tastes meat for the first time and develops a craving for human flesh.

The film premiered at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival on 14 May 2016 and was theatrically released in the United States on 10 March 2017 by Focus World, and in France on 15 March 2017 by Wild Bunch. The film received critical acclaim, with praise for Ducournau's direction and screenplay, though was met with some controversy for its graphic content.

Plot

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Lifelong vegetarian Justine begins her first semester at veterinary school, the same one her older sister Alexia is attending and where their parents met. On her first night, she meets her gay roommate Adrien, and they are forced to partake in a week-long hazing ritual, welcoming the new students. They are brought to a party, where Alexia shows Justine old class photos of students bathed in blood, including one with their parents. The next morning, the new class is splattered with blood and is forced to eat raw rabbit kidneys. Justine refuses because of her vegetarianism, but Alexia forces her to eat one. Justine leaves with Adrien and later discovers an itchy rash all over her body. She consults a doctor, who diagnoses her with food poisoning and gives her cream for the rash.

The next day, Justine begins having cravings for meat, which makes her feel ashamed. After a failed attempt to steal a burger from the cafeteria, she and Adrien take a late-night trip to a gas station so no one will see her eating meat. Unsatisfied, she eats raw chicken in the morning, and later throws up a long bundle of her own hair she had been chewing on. That night, Alexia attempts to give her a bikini wax, but when Alexia tries to cut the wax off with sharp scissors, Justine kicks her away and Alexia accidentally cuts off her own finger. Alexia faints, and Justine picks up the finger, tastes the blood, and starts eating it. Alexia wakes up to find Justine doing this but later tells their parents that her dog, Quicky, ate it.

The next morning, Alexia takes Justine to a deserted road, where Alexia jumps in front of a car, causing the two people in it to crash into a tree. Alexia starts eating one of the passengers so that her sister will "learn"; Justine is dismayed. Despite this, Justine's craving for human meat grows and she starts lusting after Adrien. That night, she arrives at a party, where paint is thrown at her as part of another hazing ritual and she is forced to make out with a boy. While kissing, Justine bites the middle of his bottom lip off, leaving the other party guests shocked and disgusted. Justine returns to her dorm and takes a shower, where she picks a chunk of his lip out of her teeth and eats it. Justine confides in Adrien and they end up having sex, during which Justine tries to bite Adrien but instead bites her own arm until it bleeds profusely, seeming to orgasm while doing so.

At another party, Justine becomes extremely intoxicated and Alexia takes her to the morgue. The next day, everyone in school stares at Justine, some avoiding her. Adrien shows her a video where Justine is crawling on all fours, attempting to take a bite out of the arm of a corpse as Alexia eggs her on, to boos and cheers from a crowd of watching party guests. Justine confronts Alexia and fights her, eventually biting each other until they are pulled apart by other students. Justine helps Alexia up, and they walk each other back to their dorms. The next morning, Justine wakes up in bed with Adrien and notices she is covered in blood. She pulls off the blankets, finding Adrien dead with most of his right leg eaten and a stab wound in his back. Justine then sees a bloody Alexia slumped on the floor. Justine is initially furious that Alexia killed Adrien but then cleans Alexia and herself up in the shower.

Alexia is imprisoned for the murder of Adrien, and Justine is sent back home. There, Justine's father tells her that what happened is neither hers nor Alexia's fault. He explains that when he first met their mother, he could not understand why she did not want to be with him. Her father says he finally realized when they kissed the first time, indicating a scar on his lip. He then opens his shirt, revealing scars and missing chunks of his chest, and assures Justine that she will find a solution.

Themes

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Coming-of-age

Raw follows Justine's coming-of-age throughout the film. The audience experiences Justine's journey into vet school and her assimilation (or lack thereof) into this new society. Ducournau throughout the film creates references to other classic coming-of-age cinema that came before her film, for example a reference to Carrie being assaulted with pig blood. The film uses cannibalism as an extended metaphor for the horror and uncertainty that can come with entering academia.[9]

Sisterhood

Raw focuses on the central familial relationship between the two sisters, Alexia and Justine. The duality of the two sisters is established early on in the film as an idealized good girl[10] and the rebellious older sister. The film follows primarily Justine's journey into a world where Alexia is already well-adapted. Alexia begins to have a predatory relationship, manipulating Justine into becoming a traditionally more feminine[11] version of herself. The sister's relationship is strained later on in the movie, as the jealousy over each other's relationship with Adrien sets in. Though this strain leads to tragedy with the death of Adrien, the sisterhood remains intact.

Cast

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Production

[edit]

Julia Ducournau answers several questions on the production of Raw in her 2017 interview with Nicolas Rapold in Film Comment. One such question she answered was in regards to her deciding on the actresses who play Justine and Alexia, Garance Marillier being a long time muse of Ducournau's, and Ella Rumpf being discovered from her previous role in the 2014 Swiss-German film, Chrieg.[13]

The film was shot on location at a school located in Liège, Belgium, a decision on Ducournau's part due to the "American" style campus that does not really exist in France, according to the director.[13]

It took two months of pre-production prep work in Liège, followed by two months of shooting to make Raw.[13]

Garance Marillier was replaced by a body double in the waxing scene.[14]

Release

[edit]

Raw was screened in the Critics' Week section at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival where it won the FIPRESCI Prize.[1][15]

During a screening at the 2016 Toronto International Film Festival, some viewers received emergency medical services after allegedly fainting from the film's graphic scenes.[16][17] Ducournau said she was "shocked" to hear this during a Q&A after the screening. The film won several awards in European film festivals, including the top prizes at the Sitges Film Festival, Festival international du film fantastique de Gérardmer, and the Paris International Fantastic Film Festival.[18] It also won Best Feature Film at the 2016 Monster Fest in Melbourne, Australia.[19]

The film had a limited theatrical release in the United States by Focus World starting on 10 March 2017.[20]

Reception

[edit]

Review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reports a 93% approval score based on 200 reviews and an average rating of 7.9/10. The site's consensus states: "Raw's lurid violence and sexuality live up to its title, but they're anchored with an immersive atmosphere and deep symbolism that linger long after the provocative visuals fade."[21] On Metacritic, it has an 81 out of 100 rating based on 33 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim".[22]

Catherine Bray of Variety wrote, "Suspiria meets Ginger Snaps in a muscular yet elegant campus cannibal horror from bright new talent Julia Ducournau."[23] Katie Rife of The A.V. Club gave the film an A− grade, stating, "The strongest of the female-led films I've screened so far at the festival is Raw, Julia Ducournau's beautifully realized, symbolically rich, and disturbingly erotic meditation on primal hungers of all kinds."[24]

David Fear of Rolling Stone praised the film highly, giving it a rare perfect score of 4 out of 4 stars; going so far as calling it "a contender for best horror movie of the decade".[25]

For The Canadian Press, David Friend wrote from the Toronto International Film Festival that the film "had audiences squirming in their seats and a few queasy patrons rushing for the exits," but he noted it was "far more than a gory horror film. Director Julia Ducournau brings a sense of humanity to the story."[26]

Nick Pinkerton of Sight & Sound gave a rather lukewarm review of the movie, labeling it "another unwieldy metaphor bundled in showy cinematography", citing the movie's "curatorial preciousness" as well as an overall insistence on contrived set pieces.[27]

In December 2017, film critic Mark Kermode named Raw the best film of 2017.[28]

Justin Chang of The Los Angeles Times wrote that "the fluidity and unpredictability of the human appetite is one of the movie's most playful and persistent themes."[29]

Awards

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See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b "Grave". Semaine de la Critique. Archived from the original on 16 September 2016.
  2. ^ a b "Raw (18)". British Board of Film Classification. 4 October 2016. Archived from the original on 5 October 2016. Retrieved 4 October 2016.
  3. ^ Lemercier, Fabien (19 April 2016). "Julia Ducournau's Raw to fight for France in the Critics' Week". Cineuropa. Archived from the original on 31 December 2013. Retrieved 15 May 2018.
  4. ^ "Raw (2017) – Financial Information". The Numbers. Archived from the original on 16 April 2017. Retrieved 15 May 2018.
  5. ^ "Shoot about to kick off for Julia Ducournau's Raw". Cineuropa. 20 October 2015. Archived from the original on 21 August 2017. Retrieved 8 May 2016.
  6. ^ Debruge, Peter (3 January 2017). "10 Directors to Watch: Julia Ducournau Reveals 'Raw' Side of French Cinema". Variety. Archived from the original on 16 January 2017. Retrieved 13 January 2017.
  7. ^ Brown, Todd (12 January 2017). "RAW: Watch The Hypnotic And Grotesque Red Band Trailer For Julia Ducournau's Acclaimed Debut". Screen Anarchy. Archived from the original on 24 September 2020. Retrieved 13 January 2017.
  8. ^ "Red Band Trailer Revealed For Julia Ducournau's Directorial Debut RAW". Horror Cult Films. 13 January 2017. Archived from the original on 21 April 2020. Retrieved 14 January 2017.
  9. ^ Beugnet, Martine; Delanoë-Brun, Emmanuelle (3 July 2021). "Raw becomings: Bodies, discipline and control in Julia Ducournau's Grave". French Screen Studies. 21 (3): 204–223. doi:10.1080/26438941.2021.1920705. ISSN 2643-8941. S2CID 236779727.
  10. ^ Dooley, Kath (1 January 2019), Holland, Samantha; Shail, Robert; Gerrard, Steven (eds.), "Navigating the Mind/body Divide: The Female Cannibal in French Films Grave (Raw, 2016), Dans ma peau (In My Skin, 2002) and Trouble Every Day (2001)", Gender and Contemporary Horror in Film, Emerald Studies in Popular Culture and Gender, Emerald Publishing Limited, pp. 53–66, doi:10.1108/978-1-78769-897-020191005, ISBN 978-1-78769-898-7, S2CID 194219122
  11. ^ Galt, Rosalind; van der Zaag, Annette-Carina (August 2022). "'C'est grave': Raw , cannibalism and the racializing logic of white feminism". Journal of Visual Culture. 21 (2): 277–296. doi:10.1177/14704129221112972. ISSN 1470-4129. S2CID 253940836. Archived from the original on 9 May 2023. Retrieved 8 May 2023.
  12. ^ "Rabah Naït Oufella as Adrien | Raw Movie". Focus Features. Archived from the original on 8 May 2023. Retrieved 8 May 2023.
  13. ^ a b c Rapold, Nicolos (March 2017). "Pleasures of the Flesh: An Interview with Julia Ducournau". Film Comment. Archived from the original on 8 May 2023. Retrieved 8 May 2023.
  14. ^ "Garance Marillier (Grave) : "Les cannibales sont des êtres humains"". www.premiere.fr. Retrieved 26 May 2024.
  15. ^ Rebecca Ford (21 May 2016). "Cannes: 'Toni Erdmann,' 'Dogs' Take Fipresci Prizes". The Hollywood Reporter. Archived from the original on 24 January 2021. Retrieved 21 May 2016.
  16. ^ Tatiana Siegel (13 September 2016). "Toronto: Multiple Moviegoers Pass Out During Cannibal Movie 'Raw' Screening". www.msn.com. The Hollywood Reporter. Archived from the original on 29 March 2017. Retrieved 14 September 2016.
  17. ^ Adam Gabbatt (14 September 2016). "Cannibal horror film too Raw for viewers as paramedics are called". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 12 June 2023. Retrieved 18 October 2016.
  18. ^ "Raw: Good Film & Bad Buzz". Archived from the original on 16 June 2019. Retrieved 16 June 2019.
  19. ^ mp_jarret (29 November 2016). "Monster Fest announces 2016 Award Winners". Monster Fest. Archived from the original on 13 November 2023. Retrieved 15 October 2023.
  20. ^ "Raw Red Band and Green Band Trailers are Here!". 12 January 2017. Archived from the original on 14 January 2017. Retrieved 13 January 2017.
  21. ^ "Raw (Grave) (2017)". Rotten Tomatoes. Archived from the original on 14 March 2017. Retrieved 2 April 2017.
  22. ^ "Raw reviews". Metacritic. Archived from the original on 17 March 2017. Retrieved 2 April 2017.
  23. ^ "Film Review: 'Raw'". Variety. Penske Media Corporation. 14 May 2016. Archived from the original on 7 October 2022. Retrieved 19 February 2017.
  24. ^ "Jason Momoa and Keanu Reeves rule the wasteland at Fantastic Fest". The A.V. Club. The Onion. 26 September 2016. Archived from the original on 20 February 2017. Retrieved 19 February 2017.
  25. ^ "'Raw' Review: Cannibal Coming-of-Age Film is a Modern Horror Masterpiece". Rolling Stone. 13 March 2017. Archived from the original on 7 March 2018. Retrieved 12 December 2017.
  26. ^ "Unearthing the gems: Standout TIFF movies you might've missed | CTV News Toronto". toronto.ctvnews.ca. 17 September 2016. Archived from the original on 7 August 2019. Retrieved 7 August 2019.
  27. ^ Pinkerton, Nick (May 2017). "Raw". Sight & Sound. 27 (5). British Film Institute: 88–89. ISSN 0037-4806.
  28. ^ Kermode, Mark (10 December 2017). "Mark Kermode: best films of 2017". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 10 December 2017. Retrieved 10 December 2017.
  29. ^ "Review: Delectable cannibal thriller 'Raw' fleshes out the mystery of female desire". Los Angeles Times. 9 March 2017. Archived from the original on 12 January 2020. Retrieved 12 January 2020.
  30. ^ "Maren Ade's "Toni Erdmann" Wins the Critics Prize in Cannes" (Press release). FIPRESCI, the International Federation of Film Critics. 22 May 2016. Archived from the original on 9 August 2018. Retrieved 18 October 2016.
  31. ^ "Toronto International Film Festival Announces 2016 Award Winners" (PDF) (Press release). Toronto International Film Festival. 18 September 2016. Archived (PDF) from the original on 24 October 2016. Retrieved 5 December 2017. The second runner up is Julia Ducournau's Raw.
  32. ^ "60th BFI London Film Festival announces 2016 awards winners" (Press release). BFI. 17 October 2016. Archived from the original on 6 May 2019. Retrieved 18 October 2016.
  33. ^ Belga (3 February 2018). "Cérémonie des Magritte: Carton plein pour "Insyriated", élu meilleur film, qui remporte 6 distinctions". La Libre Belgique (in French). Archived from the original on 2 June 2020. Retrieved 4 February 2018.
  34. ^ "The 2018 AFCA Awards". Australian Film Critics Association. Archived from the original on 14 March 2018. Retrieved 28 February 2018.
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