As a seasoned film enthusiast with an eye for the raw and unconventional, I find myself thoroughly captivated by Coralie Fargeat’s directorial masterpiece, “Revenge.” The narrative journey is not only gripping but also deeply thought-provoking, challenging societal norms and beauty standards.
Spoilers for the end of The Substance follow.
The Substance – A Warning and the Wildest Psychodrama of 2024
For a period of two years, Fargeat meticulously crafted a gruesome amalgamation fitting for the climactic bloodbath of the movie’s operatic ending. As the French director explains, “All visible elements that could be compared to bodily parts from an external viewpoint – our breasts, butts, teeth, smiles – were dismantled, crushed, and reassembled in a chaotic manner.” This, he says, symbolizes how society has been molded by men’s gaze at women, giving birth to the character Elisasue.
1.
The Birth
Fargeat had always planned that her film would culminate in a monster – a “Picasso of male ideals,” as she refers to it. The impetus for Elisabeth’s consumption of the Substance mirrors Sue’s compulsion to stay youthful, which leads her to disobey the order to exchange bodies with Elisabeth every seven days. Elisasue is a creation born from minds and bodies constantly haunted by societal judgments.
Similar to iconic film monsters, the character Elisasue yearns for affection. Fargeat took creative cues from ‘The Elephant Man’, David Lynch’s 1980 drama about a disfigured 19th-century Englishman who is exploited in a freak show until a compassionate doctor offers him shelter. Fargeat describes the character as monstrous, yet deserving of hugs, much like ‘The Elephant Man’. To visualize Elisasue, Fargeat created mood boards containing stills from Lynch’s movie, various human-animal sculptures found online, and the artwork of Fernando Botero, whose sculptures often depict women with enlarged dimensions. In Fargeat’s view, Elisasue is akin to ‘The Substance’ as Quasimodo is to Victor Hugo’s ‘The Hunchback of Notre-Dame’.
As a devoted admirer, let me share my perspective on how Fargeat brought Elisasue to life in the script. He aimed to portray her unconventionally, highlighting her unique attributes such as an off-center head, teeth sprouting from her torso, crooked limbs, and Elizabeth’s bewildered expression emerging from her posterior. He wanted the monster to be imposing, a stark contrast to our idealized vision of a graceful dancer, who we imagine as delicate with a slender waist, reminiscent of Princess Ariel. He envisioned Elisasue to be laboring and lumbering.
2.
The Transformation
Desiring to recreate the tangible horror effects that made films like “An American Werewolf in London” and “The Fly” from the 80’s feel so intense, Fargeat first consulted with prosthetics artists who found it challenging to realize her unique vision. As Pierre-Olivier Persin, a skilled prosthetics artist with credits in “Game of Thrones” and “Athena”, explains, “I encountered designs by incredibly talented individuals, but they were quite masculine.” Persin landed the job due to a small model he crafted. Together, Fargeat and Persin created Elisasue using a combination of prosthetics, puppetry, and digital imaging. On set, they had five heads (including one with a cavity that splits open to give birth to a breast connected by an umbilical cord), two full-body suits, two partial body suits, and a mold of Moore’s head. The work was so precise that Persin humorously referred to it as “months of hardship.
In the makeup chair for six tense hours, Qualley transformed into Elisasue. She found the character’s intricacies satisfying following so much time portraying Sue’s emptiness. However, the physical requirements were a whole other battle. “It was difficult,” she admits. “A tough test. But we persevered.
3.
The Blowup
After Sue murders Elizabeth and goes back to the TV studio for a New Year’s Eve special, her health begins to deteriorate. Desperate, she uses a harmful substance again, leading to the appearance of a third personality. When Elisasue catches a horrifying glimpse of herself in the mirror, she feels triumphant. In Fargeat’s opinion, she can no longer recognize herself based on any conventional beauty norms. It is only then that she finds tranquility. Fargeat explains, “She stops battling with herself because all the parts have merged into a single entity,” the director notes. Moore and Fargeat view Elisasue as a compassionate reaction to Elizabeth’s self-hatred. “She symbolizes a confrontation and the liberation of the physical body,” Moore says.
During the New Year’s celebration, Elisasue undergoes a real-time physical transformation that leaves the audience in shock. Stumbling onto the stage and ejecting a breast from her head amidst calls for her execution, Elisasue’s body explodes, releasing a torrent of artificial blood that took two weeks to film. Fargeat, equipped with a camera on her helmet, personally controlled the fire hose. This scene demanded stunt performers, 30,000 gallons of fake blood, and technical arrangements as challenging as “guiding the Titanic.” They had only one opportunity to record a sweeping shot of the audience getting drenched. In the last moments of The Substance, what remains recognizably Elisabeth – her face, now resembling Medusa with tentacles – crawls towards Elisabeth’s star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame to meet its end.
In her own words, Fargeat expresses that from the beginning, she aimed for an ending that would be liberating and powerful – something extreme and intensely cathartic. She compares the audience to society, stating that Elisabeth’s dream, which is to be accepted for who she truly is by others, symbolizes the dream of many. The violent outburst of blood and gore in the film was a means for her to express the internalized violence that comes from societal gazes and beauty standards. In essence, she used this scene as a way to splatter the audience with the consequences of their own actions, implying that they bear responsibility for the chaos.
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2024-10-07 15:54