01/03/2017 - Matilda Lutz, Kevin Janssens, Vincent Colombe and Guillaume Bouchède star in the filmmaker’s feature debut, which is being produced by MES and Monkey Pack

Vincent Colombe and Matilda Lutz on the set of Revenge (© Coralie Fargeat)

Having turned heads with her shorts Le Télégramme and Reality+, Coralie Fargeat is a true believer in genre film, a universe for which French film production currently has a voracious appetite. The director, who cites Wild at Heart, Drive, Under the Skin [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Jonathan Glazer
film profile] and Cronenberg as some of her main references, has been shooting her feature debut, Revenge [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Coralie Fargeat
film profile], since 6 February and will continue to do so until 21 March. The cast includes Italy’s Matilda Lutz (Summertime [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], My Name Is Maya), Belgium’s Kevin Janssens (The Ardennes [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Robin Pront
film profile], Madonna's Pig, a European Film Promotion Shooting Star in 2007), France’s Vincent Colombe (who made brief appearances in such films as Rosalie Blum [+see also:
trailer
film profile] and My King [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], and stars in Reality+) and his fellow countryman Guillaume Bouchède (who has been very active in the world of theatre and has made a number of appearances on the big screen, including in Two Is a Family [+see also:
trailer
making of
film profile]). 

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Written by Coralie Fargeat, the story sees three wealthy, middle-aged CEOs – all married family men – get together for their annual hunting game in a desert canyon. It’s a way for them to let off steam and affirm their manhood with guns. But this time, one of them has come along with his young mistress, a sexy Lolita who quickly arouses the interest of the two others... Things get out of hand... Left for dead in the middle of this arid hell, the young woman comes back to life, and the hunting game turns into a ruthless manhunt... 

Fargeat’s intention is to tell "the story of a woman’s transformation. At first frivolous and naïve, and subjected to the desires of men who see her only as an object of pleasure expected to satisfy them, even if it means dying because of it, she will be reborn as a brutal and savage woman who, from this moment on, nothing and nobody will be able to manipulate or abuse (...) If we interpret it in another way, it’s all about symbolising the shift in how women are represented in film, as they are all too often seen as stooges or sex objects whom we strip bare or belittle. At the start, the film toys with this image, taking it fully to heart before suddenly turning the tables. The character then turns into the strong figure in the film, a superheroine and the real driving force behind all the action (...) in a gritty, carnal world that gets increasingly sensory, hostile and violent.” 

Produced by Marc-Etienne Schwartz for MES Productions (Les Petits Princes [+see also:
trailer
film profile]), and by Jean-Yves Robin and Marc Stanimirovic for Monkey Pack Films, Revenge is being co-produced by Belgium’s Nexus Factory, and France’s Logical Pictures and Charades (the new international sales agent launched by Carole Baraton, Yohann Comte, Pierre Mazars and Constantin Briest). Having been pre-purchased by Canal+ and Ciné+, the feature is also enjoying support from the Cinémage Sofica and will be distributed in France by Rézo Films. Principal photography is scheduled to last for six weeks and two days, and is taking place in Morocco and Paris.

(Translated from French)