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(Grave) by Julia Ducournau Cannes 2016 - Critics' Week PRESS WRAP CONTENTS www.wolf-con.com RAW (Grave) by Julia Ducournau Cannes 2016 - Critics' Week PRESS WRAP www.wolf-con.com CONTENTS SELECTED QUOTES p. 3 TRADE REVIEWS p. 5 REVIEWS English language p. 12 Other languages p. 29 TRADE / SALES COVERAGE p. 41 FEATURES, INTERVIEWS p. 44 SELECTED AWARDS MENTIONS p. 54 MENTIONS p. 61 PHOTO BREAKS p. 75 SELECTED TWEETS p. 78 INTERVIEWS COMPLETED p. 84 - RAW (Grave) - Cannes 2016 - Press Wrap - Page 2 www.wolf-con.com SELECTED QUOTES "Suspiria" meets "Ginger Snaps" in a muscular yet elegant campus cannibal horror (...) A deliciously fevered stew of nightmare fuel that hangs together with a breezily confident sense of superior craft (...) The film’s most exciting element remains its writer-director (...) She has original ideas to spare and the capacity to judiciously magpie from existing work, without tipping over into slavish homage. Catherine Bray, VARIETY A cleverly written, impressively made and incredibly gory tale of one young woman's awakening to the pleasures of the flesh (...) The assured storytelling and direction, including some of the goriest makeup effects this side of Rob Zombie, turn Raw into the kind of crossover film that takes the horror genre into another domain (...) It's rare to see such confidence in a first feature, yet Ducournau seems to know where she's going at all times, keeping the narrative lean and mean while utilizing an array of stylistic techniques (...) Performances from relative newcomers Marillier and Rumpf are captivating and imposingly physical. Jordan Mintzer, THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER Raw’s feminist take on body horror is unfailingly confrontational, and it also passes the Bechdel Test with flying colours. Currently urgent themes of young women’s body image and the violence of peer pressure are interwoven to smartly provocative effect. Jonathan Romney, SCREEN DAILY Ducournau’s control of her material is masterful. The script is at once fiercely original and replete with a rich awareness of the genre, smoothly referencing films from Carrie toGinger Snaps and The Craft. Marillier is excellent, playing Justine with a subtlety and assurance that grounds the film, even at its most extreme (...) Ducournau’s intelligent exploration of femininity gives depth to the film’s visceral, bloody celebration of the body and its appetites. Chloe Roddick, Sight & Sound Extraordinarily powerful right up to the last second of the film, which draw(s) at times on the imagery of The Shining, on the brutality of Lord of the Flies, and even more so on the thematic abundance of a Dario Argento on amphetamines. What’s certain, is that this brilliant film by Ducournau, which never ceases to be artistic whilst shaking the viewer to their very core, is not to be missed. A true revelation. Bénédicte Prot, CINEUROPA - RAW (Grave) - Cannes 2016 - Press Wrap - Page 3 www.wolf-con.com SELECTED QUOTES (cont'd) Certainly, coming-of-age films that use genre semantics are not uncommon, but Raw takes this to another level, in fact questioning the use of the semantic while finding its central power and horror. As an allegory of the discovery of identity, shifting sexuality, the sexual power of women, and the first steps into adulthood, it's a unique and rare film, that will hopefully (and deservedly) find an audience beyond genre film fans. Schelagh Rowan-Legg, Twitchfilm The bloodlust may grab all the headlines, but this fright night favourite in the making has plenty to sink your teeth into. Ed Frankl, Little White Lies Ducourneau, a first-time writer-director, shows surprisingly sharp command and, more importantly, restraint given the subject matter. Although the film is rooted in arthouse film territory, and is particularly inspired by the films of David Cronenberg and David Lynch, “Raw” turns out to be its own wild animal. It has rightly earned the buzz that has surrounded the picture, and Ducourneau’s visual and narrative and uncompromising vision is one to watch. Jordan Ruimy, The Playlist Strikingly original and teeming with talented performers, Raw carries a distinct air of being ‘this year’s It Follows’, another horror that left the Semaine with huge praise. If all goes as it should, Raw has the potential to replicate that picture’s runaway, sleeper success. Douglas J. Greenwood, Frowning Seasoned with several directorial Giallo-notes (especially in the red-lit rave scenes) (...) a surprisingly coherent and effective mix of atmospheric coming-of-age drama, black humored horror comedy and a big feminist FUCK YOU! (...) a thrilling theatrical tour de force. Christoph Petersen, Filmstarts.de (Germany) - RAW (Grave) - Cannes 2016 - Press Wrap - Page 4 TRADE REVIEWS - RAW (Grave) - Cannes 2016 - Press Wrap - Page 5 POSITIVE "Suspiria" meets "Ginger Snaps" in a muscular yet elegant campus cannibal horror from bright new talent Julia Ducournau. (Page 1 of 2) May 14, 2016 Catherine Bray Hannibal Lecter may have selected appropriate wine matches for his meat, but the cannibalism on display in French freshman writer-director Julia Ducournau’s succulent “Raw” is more opportunistic — the equivalent, say, of being able to handily throw together a meal from whoever is lying around. Premiering in Cannes Critics’ Week — where jurors will have had to sit up and take note, if not reach for the barf bag, “Raw” is a deliciously fevered stew of nightmare fuel that hangs together with a breezily confident sense of superior craft. Genre-led distribs will be slavering for a taste, while crossover to a slightly more mainstream crowd may be possible, provided they have strong stomachs. The central narrative in “Raw” opens with an amuse-bouche of a scene, functioning as something of a tease for the banquet to come. Strict vegetarian Justine (Garance Marillier) orders plain mashed potato in a canteen, but when she chows down, she’s disconcerted to find a chunk of sausage in her mash. Her parents are even more outraged, determined to preserve her herbivorous purity. It’s not really a spoiler to reveal that her imminent ascent up the food chain will involve more adventurous hors d’oeuvres. The vast majority of the action takes place over Justine’s first week at the veterinary college that is her parents’ alma mater, and also where her older sister Alexia (Ella Rumpf) is already studying. This location is key to what follows: Like the dance academy in Dario Argento’s “Suspiria” (or the school in 2014’s Critics’ Week triumph “The Tribe”), the college appears to be a placeless, hermetically sealed environment permeated with heightened emotion; a kind of twisted dream-logic dominates and permits events to get suitably out of hand. - RAW (Grave) - Cannes 2016 - Press Wrap - Page 6 POSITIVE "Suspiria" meets "Ginger Snaps" in a muscular yet elegant campus cannibal horror from bright new talent Julia Ducournau. (Page 2 of 2) Marillier initially does a superb job of projecting the ingenue. Doe-eyed, chin up, and a natural valedictorian type, she’s ready to throw herself into her studies. Her bewilderment throughout disorienting compulsory mass hazing rituals (including a group version of the crucial pig’s blood scene from “Carrie”) is palpable: At this point audiences will fear for her safety. They will come to learn that she can take care of herself, as Marillier traces a beautifully modulated arc into more feral territory, whereby her very face shape seems to subtly change, becoming more pointed, her fashionably heavy eyebrows hawkish rather than neglected, her bearing predatory. Her name, suggesting De Sade’s corrupted heroine Justine, is not an accident. In a kind of devilish performance duet, she’s ably matched by a punky live-wire turn from Rumpf, who channels an unholy blend of Béatrice Dalle in “Betty Blue” and Fairuza Balk’s signature 1990s role in “The Craft.” Their sororal dynamic is important, but make no mistake: It’s not always a benign bond. As in sisterly werewolf flick “Ginger Snaps,” female sexuality and sibling rivalry are very much to the fore and drenched in gore. Speaking of gore, kudos are due to the makeup, effects and prosthetics teams. Often so realistic that they are hard to look at, scenes that viewers of a sensitive nature may find disturbing see lacerated extremities, bite marks and gaping wounds perfectly walk the line between the visceral fun of practical effects and overt attention-grabbing. The effects are simply here to be believed. Still, the film’s most exciting element remains its writer-director. It’s not that Ducournau’s first feature is totally without flaws — any road bumps are mainly narrative and structural in nature — but that the authorial voice that emerges is so instantly complete and confident. She has original ideas to spare and the capacity to judiciously magpie from existing work, without tipping over into slavish homage. The film’s soundscape may be familiar to fans of U.K. helmer Ben Wheatley, as his regular composer Jim Williams is responsible for the score. Williams essays a similar approach to that taken in Wheatley’s killer road-trip comedy “Sightseers,” with folksy lighter numbers giving way to heavier, more psychedelic freak-out tracks as the characters degenerate into madness. It’s a tactic that works very well, particularly in tandem with the more expected but still well-curated diegetic music blasting out of the students’ sound systems. “Raw” is realized to a high standard that should break it out beyond specialist distributors and exhibitors, and genre fests that can get in there before release should book it and watch audiences delight in its stylish sense of body horror. Only a handful of foreign-language films without marquee names cross over to cult success in English-speaking territories each year. This deserves to be one of the handful, and will be aided by its genre: Good horror doesn’t need established stars.
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