A mad film that let me reflect not just on beauty standards, but on women in art and the future of cinema as well.
The Substance directed by Coralie Fargeat was one of the most talked about films of 2024. As with most films I watched it twice, and here are some of my immediate notes from the films.
The Substance is MAD film!
Cinema as a medium is made for explorations like The Substance. Despite my first viewing of the film on a mobile phone screen I strongly felt that it deserved a big screen viewing. The film is an insane visual treat! Its visual treatment falls into the ominous weird zone, almost everything tends to feel in your face. The very first frame indicates that this is going to be a ruthless, no-holds-bar take on the subject and sets expectations accordingly in terms of the themes the filmmaker is tackling. This impeccable glossy cinematography aptly aids this story about unreal impeccable beauty standards, obsession and similar ideas that is idealised. The poppy vibrant look of the film lends it a strange polished fakeness, similar to the faces of the people when they undergo beauty procedures like Botox, chin tuck etc .
My (misogynistic) relation with beauty and makeup
The world of beauty and makeup has always been crazy and unrealistic. Its never enough, no matter what you do. There is always something or the other left to catch up with. How much and whether to indulge in it is a personal choice. I am one of those who don’t use makeup. Very rarely. As an outspoken young college going woman I always felt that was the right thing to do. Though like everyone else I was also conscious of my looks, make up or beauty regimens rarely occupied my time. And (probably unfairly) I even judged women and girls who indulged in makeup and upkeep. I believed that the road to liberation and freedom for women is NOT through makeup. Interestingly, in an interview the director Carolie Farrget said how this type of thinking is also problematic in a way that it also dictates women what not to do with their appearances. And of course judges them. The conditioning is so deep that its very hard to shed it even if you think you are a fairly progressive, modern, liberated woman. Many women and girls, in order to feel good about themselves and find acceptance within male circles, are compelled to berate or look down upon other women . This is the harshest part.
But beauty is not just makeup. Its elaborate surgeries and procedures.
But we have come a long way, from relying mostly on makeup and salon appointments and now with the easy availability of elaborate beauty treatments and surgeries are in our neighbourhood derma clinic. Of course, targetted mostly at women. It is becoming more and more common for regular folks- and not just celebrities- to opt for sittings with a dermatologist. All sorts of beauty ‘problems’ are regularly taken care of here. Or rather beauty problems are invented. If advertisements and marketing campaigns are to be believed then there is a breakthrough happening in the science of beauty almost every month. New ingredient, new cutting edge technology, new formula. This urgent insecurity is starting to seep into our everyday beauty and wellness products which now claim to include some weird scientific sounding key ingredient in a bottle with packaging resembling a pharmaceutical drug. Your cute little regular moisturising lotion bottle won’t do any good. Its worth it only if its ‘certified by a dermatologist’. These current obsessions with beauty is fueled in part because of the boom in better cameras technologies in our phones, affordably priced it has nudged an entire generation to be in front of the camera more frequently.
For instance, the fact that Indians place a huge value on lighter skin tone is well established. The new media technology just allows it to reinforce further. This is a huge market where Indians, especially women, can get their skin tone to resemble caucasian. It has surpassed what average Indians would expect out of their Fair & Lovely face creams. In addition to in-clinic skin lightening treatments that peel your dark skin away, its also supported further by serums and lotions which block melanin producing agents in your skin. Skin care routine just keeps getting longer and longer. The Caucasian look is incomplete without frizz free silky smooth straight hair with occasional lighter shades of hair colour. Botox lips are way more common now. Looking at us in a camera makes us want to nitpick and everything is a skin issue to be fixed. This is how its starting to go into the fantastic realm.
Demi Moore as the lead is a perfect casting
Demi Moore is one of the most well-known celebrity and has been in the public eye since the 80s-90s. During her younger days she was a poster woman, a male fantasy, beauty icon and all the things that women in the public eye are subjected to. Therefore, Demi Moore is a perfect actor to lend her trove of personal experience to this character. No one knows better than her the insecurities and the pressure to maintain youthful looks forever. In a BTS (behind the scene) film of The Substance the actress admits that the entire experience was cathartic, and as a result gained a lot as an artist. Both Demi and Maragaret (Qualley) found the experience to be liberating.
Beauty Monsters!! (Spoiler Alert)
One of the most defining, gut wrenching and horrifying element of The Substance is the beauty monster, which shows up in the final act of the film. This insane expectation and internalised obsession with how we look is represented in the beauty monster that becomes of Demi Moor’s character. After going through endless beauty procedures such as Botox lips or some skin tuck a lot of beauties don’t realise that they are starting to look weird, plastic and unreal. These things have real psychological affects. Once we start indulging in one or the other beauty problem our mind turns into a monster which keeps drawing our attention to our non-existent or minuscule flaws. It quickly turns into an endless obsession that can take monstrous proportions that eat into our time and life.
Women (filmmakers) are the saviours of the cinematic medium
Far too long like every other field, cinema has largely been dominated by men. For quite some time now there has been a lot of chatter about how cinema is dying and cinema halls are struggling to attract crowds. Especially post pandemic. If we are to believe these sentiments then its the women, and the films made by women that will save this medium. In the last few years, of all the films and TV shows I have watched the ones that have stood out as boundary pushing in terms of storytelling and use of the medium have been made by women. Though men and men centric narratives have ruled the cinematic universe for the most part, but films made by women just hit the nail differently. Clearly we need more women in cinemas. I strongly feel that that their understanding of the medium is distinct! Lending a rare depth and sharpness. Not just cinema I have also noticed this when it comes to paintings. Women painters were instrumental in starting and contributing art movements but never got credited or recognised as they should have been, often overshadowed by the husbands or partners whose careers they ended up spotlighting. Therefore, whenever I watch such films, as an emerging filmmaker and performer I feel immensely encouraged. The world might be crumbling and arts are probably under greater threat but these are definitely exciting times to be a woman in cinema. Therefore, The Substance is an extremely relevant film in these times.