Michel Houellebecq returns to the controversy Kirac 27. The French novelist claims to have been “taken aback” and “not to have seen the danger” of this erotic film in which he plays, in an interview with Sunday newspaper. Dealing in particular with this subject, his book A few months in my life, October 2022-March 2023 is also expected on May 24.
In November 2022, the author of The Map and the Territory (Goncourt Prize 2010) signed a contract with a Dutch director, Stefan Ruitenbeek, for a pornographic film. Asked about this document, the writer calls it “despicable”, considering it “absurd” to have signed it.
Not ‘famous enough to have a sextape’
“I didn’t think I was famous enough to have a sex tape. It happens to actors, singers, TV presenters, footballers, politicians. To writers, normally, no,” adds Michel Houellebecq. “But what partially reduces my stupidity is that I had no intention of shooting porn shots at all,” he says, saying that he hadn’t seen a clause allowing “to use the two hours of filming done in Paris”.
The writer has been trying for months to have the images shot at the end of 2022 by the Dutch filmmaker banned, claiming to have been tricked when he wanted not to be recognizable. French justice, considering itself incompetent, had dismissed the writer in February of his request to have the film banned. The Dutch justice also rejected this request but it authorized Michel Houellebecq on appeal to watch the film Kirac 27 before its broadcast.
The judges indeed considered justified the fears of the writer that the Dutch filmmaker does not respect part of the agreement defining “a play between reality and fiction”, according to which the film must create the illusion of erotic scenes with a doppleganger. If Michel Houellebecq raises objections and the filmmaker refuses to adjust the film, he can go to court again.