Mini biography

Coralie Fargeat _{(1976, Paris, France)}

Coralie Fargeat (born 1976) is a French film director and screenwriter.

She is best known for her 2017 debut feature film Revenge, for which she received awards from independent film festivals across the world.

Her second feature The Substance (2024), a feminist body horror film starring Demi Moore, screened in the main competition at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival, where Fargeat won the Best Screenplay award.

Fargeat lists David Cronenberg, John Carpenter, David Lynch, and Michael Haneke as filmmakers who have influenced her, as well as crediting several South Korean filmmakers as stylistic inspiration.

“For my first feature film [Revenge], I really wanted to choose a film that was close to what I like as a director and as a filmmaker. I was sure it had to be a genre film. That’s what I grew up with. It was this strong desire to create my own genre film, combined with the idea of being fascinated with the Lolita character that brings upon her a lot of love and violence.”

Fargeat is fascinated with a suspension of disbelief, and is a fan of using imagery and symbols to express something simple in a powerful way. She is fascinated with films that are able to create their own world and manage to exist outside the realm of reality, citing revenge films like Kill Bill and Rambo as examples of this.

In making graphic or gore-filled movies, Fargeat finds that balancing violent scenes with humor makes the violence more tolerable.

Fargeat believes that films that fill themselves with homages and references can push the viewer away from being able to identify with the film. She describes this separation as "second-degree moments" and chooses to stay away from excessive references.

Fargeat finds it crucial to approach film and filmmaking with a genuine and sincere vision, stating she tries to "embrace [her] subject in its choices, its biases, its excesses, in its faults too" to achieve this.

When in pre-production for Revenge, she stated that actress Matilda Lutz was chosen for the part partially because of her extensive trust in Fargeat, something that was important to her for the creation of the film.

Director - Selected filmography

1. The Substance (2024)