Extreme

Martyrs, 2008

When you see a movie that looks special, you're probably not the first one. New French Extremity (or New French Extremism) is a term coined by Artforum critic James Quandt for a collection of transgressive films by French directors at the turn of the 21st century. The filmmakers are also discussed by Jonathan Romney of The Independent. Quandt describes the style as follows:

(Mario) Bava as much as (George) Bataille, Salo (Pasolini) and no less than de Sade seem the determinants of a cinema suddenly determined to break every taboo, to wade in rivers of viscera and spumes of sperm, to fill each frame with flesh, nubile or gnarled, and subject it to all manner of penetration, mutilation, and defilement.

Quandt associates François Ozon, Gaspar Noé, Catherine Breillat, Philippe Grandrieux, Bruno Dumont, Claire Denis' Trouble Every Day, Patrice Chereau's Intimacy, Philippe Grandrieux's La Vie nouvelle, Bertrand Bonello's The Pornographer, Marina de Van's In My Skin, Leos Carax's Pola X, Jean-Claude Brisseau's Secret Things, Jacques Nolot's La Chatte à deux têtes, Virginie Despentes and Coralie Trinh Thi's Baise-moi, and Alexandre Aja's Haute tension with the label.

While Quandt intended the term as pejorative, many so labeled have produced critically acclaimed work. David Fear indicates that the lack of humanity beneath the horror represented in these film leads to their stigma, arguing that Bruno Dumont's Flanders "contains enough savage violence and sexual ugliness" to remain vulnerable to the New French Extremity tag, but "a soul also lurks underneath the shocks". Nick Wrigley indicates that Dumont was merely chastised for "letting everybody down" who expected him to be the heir to Robert Bresson. Jonathan Romney also associates the label with Olivier Assayas' Demonlover, Christophe Honoré's Ma mère, and C.S. Leigh's Process.

Some of the movies: À l'intérieur (2007), À Ma Soeur (2001), Baise-moi (2000), Calvaire (2004), Carne (1991), Choses Secrètes (2002), Dans Ma Peau (2002), Demonlover (2002), Flandres (2006), Frontière(s) (2007), Haute Tension (2003), Ils (2006), Intimacy (2001), Irreversible (2002), L'Humanite (1999), La Chatte à Deux Têtes (2002), La Vie Nouvelle (2002), Le Pornographe (2001), Les Amants Criminels (1999), Ma Mère (2004), Martyrs (2008), Pola X (1999), Process (2004), Regarde la Mer (1997), Romance (1999), Seul Contre Tous (1998), Sheitan (2006), Sitcom (1998), Sombre (1998), Sous Le Sable (2000), Trouble Every Day (2001), Twentynine Palms (2003), Vinyan (2008).

Martyrs (2008) just got out on DVD here and it got five out of five stars in my newspaper. Here is the scene (in 2x60MB. parts) where the woman is skinned alive. Indeed, pretty extreme.