Directed by: Julia Ducournau
Written by: Julia Ducournau
Starring: Garance Marilllier, Ella Rumpf, Rabah Nait Oufella
IMDb Link
I didn't know much about Raw going in to the film, save for reports that some theatres were handing out vomit bags to its audience; that kind of reputation is intriguing enough to get me to see a film, and in this case, I'm so glad that I did. Raw is an excellent cinematic experience akin to an arthouse picture mixed with a David Lynch film; bizarre, brutal, open to interpretation, and not always clear, but still displaying great technical skill and understanding of visual language.
The plot focuses on a new student at a vet school, Justine (Marillier), a lifelong vegetarian who gets exposed to meat for the first time in a hazing ritual. From that first meat-eating moment, the film escalates Justine's carnivorous conduct to the point that Justine begins eating human flesh. The story is strange, horrific, and brilliantly built. Each scene builds upon the last in a way that causes tensions to rise, as music becomes more intense and flows with Justine's actions, colours change from peaceful greens to dangerous reds, and the camera begins to hold longer and longer on each scene until the truly horrifying moment that left me squirming in my seat, disgusted by what I was watching but unable to look away.
Director Ducournau is painfully aware of how to trap an audience in a scene. Raw constantly presents the audience with actions that are uncomfortable to look upon, and holds the moments on these actions just long enough for it to be gratuitous enough to get you shifting in your seat. This is helped by regular use of long takes in tight spaces. The film contrasts between static and flowing, violent and serene; this emphasises the more brutal moments of the film and makes the moments where Justine is in an altered state of mind stand out even more.
In addition to the shot composition, there's also skilled use of sound. As I mentioned before, the music builds and flows with Justine's actions, suiting the oddly serious and uncomfortable tone of the film perfectly, but just as importantly this film uses a lack of music or even total silence at points to really drive home the visual stimulation of what happens on screen. There isn't anything to hear at important moments, so every part of your attention is drawn to what you can see. Ducournau uses this to great effect, once again contrasting some moments with others and carefully constructing the emotions or mood of a scene.
Impressively, within all of this technical skill and body-horror influence, Raw manages to tell a meaningful story. While the film gets a little difficult towards the end, Raw's consistent use of symbolism in its colour, sound, characters etc., express the issues of "trying to fit in" and "becoming your own person". It doesn't offer an answer as to whether or not either one of these is right, and indeed concludes seemingly without an answer, but using cannibalism to try and significantly explore themes such as sexuality to consider whether or not a person should try to fit in or strike out on their own is interesting, to say the least. The film tries to be more than simple exploitation, and while its ultimately less impressive than the rest of the film, I can't say I'm disappointed by the effort.
The Verdict: Raw lives up to its name. Its casual and naturalistic attitude towards what happens mixed with the delirium of Justine's progression is disturbingly appropriate, and the film's technical prowess alone makes this film worth the watch, as everything from the soundtrack to the use of colour is meticulous in approach. However, this film is definitely not for everyone; it's extremely confronting, and while I may not have needed one myself, I can understand why people needed vomit bags.
Rating: 8/10
Published May 8th, 2017
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