- The series I may destroy you , available from June 8 on OCS, is the story of a rape, which is accessed by flashes, from the consciousness and memory of the heroine.
- If rape scenes are not uncommon at all in movies or series, they are very rarely shown "from the perspective of the victim", explains film critic Iris Brey.
- "I speak to the part in us that has been ruined, stolen, manipulated without our consent ... And I try to help us find ways to sleep at night, because sometimes suffering and anger prevent us from doing so," confided director and actress Michaela Coel at 20 Minutes .
Arabella is a young aspiring writer, recently crowned with the success of one of her texts. We order her a book, and she begins to write, painfully. One evening, when inspiration does not come and the "deadline" approaches, it goes out in a box. And this is where the event occurs which will serve as a common thread and revealer for the whole series I may destroy you , broadcast on OCS from June 8: a rape, which then comes back to him in bits and pieces, after a black -out. A rape which is accessed by flashes, from the consciousness and the memory of the heroine. A raw rape, in no way eroticized, filmed on a subjective camera, that is to say from the very eyes of Arabella, reliving the scene.
After filming and incarnating in 2015 in the Chewing-gum series the story of Tracey, a young 24-year-old virgin Londoner learning sex, director Michaela Coel explores the throes of the body again, but with a different subject more difficult, and very little filmed: the traumatic memory of rape. The series describes in its first episodes with meticulousness what the psychiatrist Muriel Salmona has been trying to teach our society for years: the terrible psychological consequences of this crime, which very often leaves indelible traces. We see for example the intrusive reminiscences invade the consciousness of Arabella, played by Michaela Coel herself. They are triggered by things as harmless as the vision of a glass, recalling that which preceded the rape.
"You never see the trauma of rape and its progression"
"It's really feminine gaze because you are in your head, in your body, and you live with it the trauma that re-emerges", analysis for 20 Minutes Iris Brey , author of the book Feminine Regard - A revolution on the screen , in which she analyzes films and series that highlight the female experience. Interviewed by 20 Minutes during a roundtable on zoom with several other journalists, Michaela Coel specifies: “I rather tried to make my vision dominate the show, and I am a woman. And my director of photography Adam and my team were very willing to collaborate with me and understand that I had a certain way of seeing things ”.
If rape scenes are not rare at all in cinema or series, they are very rarely shown "from the point of view of the victim". Iris Brey sums it up as follows: "You never see the trauma of rape and its progression". It is from this angle that I may destroy you is really innovative, even if such experiences have started to be shown in recent years. We can cite the series The Scarlet Servant , where we hear the heroine, June, reciting in voiceover during her rape all the songs with the word "blue", to try to disconnect from the pain. Other series and films have tried, here and there, to relate this crime from a female point of view; demonstrates film criticism in her book: Elle , by Paul Verhoeven (2015), Baise moi (2000), Thelma and Louise (1991), Outrage (1950), for example.
"Writing this series was very cathartic"
If Michaela Coel describes the experience of rape so precisely and with such finesse, it may also be because she was the victim herself. The director revealed her cataclysm during the Edinburgh International Television Festival in August 2018. She was attacked while writing the Chewing Gum series. The account she gave of this attack is very similar to what happens in the series I may destroy you : “I worked at night in the premises of the production company, I had to make an episode the next morning at 7 am. I took a break with a friend who was around, and came back to myself several hours later, typing the start of season two. ”
Asked about this experience and the reasons which led her to tell it in a series, Michaela Coel confides that she has a "tendency to write from elements drawn from reality". She adds: "I wonder if this is my way of dissociating myself from a traumatic thing, because it is too traumatic ... And perhaps also to take a step back to understand and look at this with more distance. Writing doesn't replace therapy, however, she warns: "I don't think writing this series could replace therapy, but writing this series was very cathartic." It was very rewarding to be able to write from my past, to feel the suffering of the past, and to feel that this suffering is gone. "
The film breaks a double taboo
Michaela Coel also shows other aspects of female life that are generally overlooked, such as menstruation. Three months before the rape, Arabella is in Italy with her roommate and friend Terry, and they bring two men back to their apartment. Arabella makes love with a handsome Italian drug dealer, crossed earlier, who removes her tampon full of blood, before penetrating her. The tampon is in no way hidden, the film breaks a double taboo: that of showing menstrual blood, and of showing it in a sex scene. “The bathroom and the toilet became really important places for me, as the series was written. Because the whole series is about the relationship between public and private space, ”comments Michaela Coel.
If menstrual blood has already been shown in a few rare series before (in I love Dick or Orange is the New Black in particular), showing a tampon full of blood during a sex scene is an extremely rare thing (readers, if you have an example in mind, I'm curious to know it, and I will update this article). "Menstruation is one of the least shown things," confirms Iris Brey, who adds: "Michaela Coel likes to go to dark places or gray areas and it is important to question these bordering areas. "
i may destroy you will probably never replace therapy, but for all people who have had similar experiences, and there are many (in 2015, INED counted in France nearly 580,000 victims of "a form of violence sexual activity in the past 12 months ”) it may make them feel less alone. This is what Michaela Coel hopes: "I speak to the part in us that has been ruined, stolen, manipulated without our consent ... And I try to help us find ways to sleep at night, because sometimes suffering and anger prevent us. "
Culture
Cinema and feminism: "The" female gaze "is to feel with the heroine, it is a look that highlights the female experience", according to Iris Brey
Television
"Chewing Gum": Michaela Coel, the British phenomenon that sucks
- Culture