The Substance, an artist retreat in Hydra and Vive L'Amour at 30
Essential stories on A Rabbit's Foot this week
Coralie Fargeat: “I give birth through my art”
Nothing can prepare you for The Substance, Coralie Fargeat’s 2024 body horror about ageing, beauty and celebrity. In it, Demi Moore plays Elisabeth Sparkle, a famous actress past her prime, who presents 80s-inspired exercise videos and lives alone in a plush apartment with an unbroken view of LA. Sacked by her boss over a lunch in which he sucks the brains out of prawns, she quickly spirals into a crisis. A solution is presented to her by way of the Substance, a lurid green, generically branded injectable which allows Elisabeth to create Sue (Margaret Qualley), a younger version of herself who picks up Elisabeth’s career where it was dwindling off. “Remember you are one,” is the product’s tagline. The two women—forced to “switch” every seven days—end up at war with each other, and The Substance descends into a carnage which by the end feels as if it is splattering out into your theatre seat. Kitty Grady caught up with the director in Paris to talk genre cinema, motherhood and making deals with the devil.
Descoverartists: A love affair with Hydra
“Three years ago I sat in the passenger seat of my mom’s car, driving back to Beirut after a summer-long stay in Faraya, Lebanon with racing thoughts of how horrible the prospects of finding a job back in London would be. Looking for an escape from my daunting reality, I started looking into art residencies, eventually stumbling onto Descoverartists. Two weeks later I found myself on Hydra, an island where cars never got to drive, endless steep stairways, taverns serving incredible zucchini balls and the clearest, most stunning waters." Now online, A Rabbit’s Foot’s Adriana Aoun pens an emotive dispatch from Hydra and the artists residency that has become a haven for her year after year.
Vive l’amour at 30: Tsai Ming-liang revisits his intoxicating masterpiece
Earlier this month, acclaimed filmmaker Tsai Ming-liang’s beloved sophomore feature Vive L’Amour turned 30. “A masterclass in slow (and sexy) cinema, the film captures the yearning and isolation of three denizens of a rapidly developing Taipei, who unknowingly find themselves sharing a vacant high rise apartment.” writes Luke Georgiades. “It won the Golden Lion when it premiered at Venice, and catapulted Tsai from an exciting new voice in second wave Taiwanese cinema to international arthouse darling.” Now online Ming-liang explains how the film is still resonating with audiences three decades later, its breathtaking ending, and his own evolution as a filmmaker and person.
