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Author: Michel Houellebecq
Photograph:
Manuel Cedron / IMAGO
In the dispute over a controversial film, the French writer Michel Houellebecq has now achieved a partial success in court. The Dutch art collective Kirac must first submit the finished film to Houellebecq before publication, a court in Amsterdam ruled on Tuesday in the appeal proceedings. Previously, the author had failed in the first instance with a lawsuit against the filmmakers.
The artist collective speaks of an art film in which the boundary between fiction and truth is not always clear. But Houellebecq has now expressed concern in court that the filmmakers would not stick to the agreements and that his reputation would be damaged. The judges now complied with this. Once the film has been published online, the damage cannot be reversed. If the author does not accept the film, and the filmmaker refuses to make changes, then, according to the verdict, the author can go to court again.
Houellebecq wanted to have the film, which is described as porn by some media, banned after watching the trailer. In it, the author could be seen bare-chested kissing a young woman. He had signed a contract with the filmmaker Stefan Ruitenbeek of the collective, in which the author agreed to participate in the project and have sex with several young women in front of the camera.
Initially, Houellebecq had argued in court that he had been depressed and drunk when he signed the contract. The judge of the first instance, however, did not find this credible, because the author had willingly participated in the recordings.
xvc/dpa