(Paris) The world-renowned French novelist Michel Houellebecq claimed to have been “taken aback” and “not to have seen the danger” of the erotic film in which he plays, in an interview with the Sunday newspaper.
In November 2022, the author of The Map and the Territory (Goncourt Prize 2010) signed a contract with a Dutch director, Stefan Ruitenbeek, for a pornographic film.
“I didn’t think I was famous enough to have a sextape. It happens to actors, singers, TV presenters, footballers, politicians. To writers, normally, no,” he adds.
Asked about the contract signed as part of this shoot, the writer called it “despicable”, considering it “absurd” to have signed it.
“But what partially reduces my stupidity is that I had no intention of shooting porn shots at all,” he says, saying that he hadn’t seen a clause allowing “to use the two hours of filming done in Paris”.
The writer has been trying for months to have the images shot at the end of 2022 by the Dutch filmmaker banned, claiming to have been tricked when he wanted not to be recognizable.
French justice, considering itself incompetent, had dismissed the writer in February of his request to have the film banned.
The Dutch justice also rejected this request but it authorized Mr. Houellebecq on appeal to watch the film Kirac 27 before its broadcast.
The judges indeed considered justified the fears of the writer that the Dutch filmmaker does not respect part of the agreement defining “a play between reality and fiction”, according to which the film must create the illusion of erotic scenes with a doppleganger.
If Mr. Houellebecq objects and the filmmaker refuses to adjust the film, he can go to court again.
The French novelist will publish on May 24 an account of his setbacks with the Dutch filmmaker, according to Flammarion editions.
Michel Houellebecq is a writer recognized for his ability to observe the excesses of Western societies. But it is also controversial because of positions deemed racist and Islamophobic.