The writer Michel Houellebecq wants to ban a Dutch film, described as porn, featuring him

The lawyers of Michel Houellebecq and his wife announced on Tuesday February 7 that they had been responsible for hiring “all amicable and contentious procedures, both civil and criminal”, to obtain the prohibition of the film “Kirac 27” and its trailer, which they consider defamatory. Qualified as porn, the film, produced by the Dutch collective Kirac, is due out on March 11 and features the writer. The trailer, released at the end of January, notably shows him shirtless, kissing a young woman in a bed. In voiceover, the director, Stefan Ruitenbeek, also tells that Michel Houellebecq had written to him that his honeymoon in Morocco had been canceled, while his wife had, according to him, “spent a month arranging prostitutes in advance”.

The couple has “discovered with dismay and disgust” that the trailer of “Kirac 27” contained “statements implicating them, serious and misleading, violently undermining their dignity”, write Mes Angélique Bérès and Maïa Kantor, who defend the spouses, in a press release. He therefore instructed his counsel to “immediately put an end to these attacks by all means” doing “remove this trailer from platforms and social networks worldwide” and by prohibiting the director and the collective “any exploitation, commercial or non-commercial, in any form whatsoever, of the film (…) and other images that they may have of the Houellebecq spouses”.

According to Angelique Bérès, “the pre-litigation procedures have already been initiated with the director and the platforms” to get the film banned, especially if it contains the voice-overs from the trailer. In a letter sent to the director, of which AFP was aware, Michel Houellebecq evokes “outburst of violence” trailer, “which irremediably damages [sa] private life, [son] honor but above all, what is even more serious, to [sa] woman, devastated by the lies” broadcast on it.