MovieChat Forums > Extension du domaine de la lutte (1999) Discussion > Hitting pretty close to the mark

Hitting pretty close to the mark

posted 9 years ago by FlorisV
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Houellebecq himself has clearly expressed his intent to always hit where it hurts the most. Not going into the what or why on a personal level, the movie did for me, it moved me a great deal. There are little films about this ugly taboo of virginity or at least of not having (good) sex that nobody really wants to talk about outside of mocking somebody because it's too embarassing or a "problem" that only pathetic selfchosen losers have in many people's minds. I've seen a colleague being mocked for being a virgin. Because of course everybody is sexually attractive and success is a choice. Which is the most pleasant thing to believe for those who are successful in all desired areas, it feeds the ego. Regarding this topic, on the internet, whenever it would be discussed, I have seen nothing but hateful, abusive and vile posts against people that are like the 2 men in this movie. Even beggars get way more respect than that. Empathy seems non existant in this particular matter.

It is also hypocritical. Because even if the majority has some type of sex life, many people are unhappy with it. I am interested in the book and how Houellebecq looks at sex, something that's further and further downgraded to a consumption article in a marketplace. However I do not mostly blame the 60s Revolution, I blame the media for blowing up sex out of proportion as if it's the new God. It's a mindblowing pleasure but nature really does not care about your happiness, procreation is top priority, nothing else.

So what I like about the movie is there is actually love and empathy for these 2 guys which is extremely rare in the world. Most people would just laugh them in the face or simply not care. Of course, no woman should be obliged to sleep with them, lolz. But why think differently about poor people, should people be obliged to give them some money because life is unfair? Seems like a schizo way of political views (and I would say no to both questions).

Are there more films like this?

[–] Khayyam1048 9 years ago

Both the novel and this film adaptation are very good.

Are there any films like "Whatever"?

If it's just the theme of virginity and the inability of some men (well past adolescence) to find a normal sexual outlet with the opposite sex, then I can't think of too many, precisely because there is such a strong taboo around the subject. (There are, of course, the cheery, rite-of-passage films such as "Seventeen" and "Here We Go 'Round the Mulberry Bush", where, apart from mildly comic setbacks, adolescent boys become "men" without undue stress or trauma.)

I'd be wary of overemphasising the purely sexual angle, though; the genius of Houellebecq here is that he has made a strong, but hitherto unrecognised, connection between the economic free-market of neoliberal societies, and the sexual free-market of permissive ones (generally, one and the same).

"Our Hero" and the tragic Raphael Tisserand are "outsider" figures, not because they are poor or inhabit some demi-monde, bohemia or other deviant subculture, but because they are among the sexually disenfranchised.

Consequently, the closest cinematic analogues are to be found among other "outsider" figures (who nevertheless operate in a mainstream milieu); Claude Laydu as the young priest in Bresson's "Journal d'un cure de campagne" (1951) is such a figure, while Michael Redgrave as Crocker-Harris, the schoolmaster in Anthony Asquith's "The Browning Version" (with a flawless screenplay by Terence Rattigan) is another. Crocker-Harris remarks, at one point (with agonising poignancy), that his situation (as a cuckold) is usually a comic theme, and virginity does indeed appear as a comic motif (with a dash of tragedy) in the British situation comedy "Sorry", starring Ronnie Corbett as a middle-aged man who still lives at home with his domineering mother and amiable, but henpecked, father.

Perhaps the closest analogue of all in recent times is the series of confessional YouTube videos filmed, narrated and uploaded by the late Elliot Rodger, except that - with appalling consequences all round - he actually got to carry out at least some of his revenge murders.