Rating: 4/5
Gen X Soft Club Videodrome
Overnight flight on an expensive plane.
Diane and Volf stay up to plot their upcoming negotiations with a Japanese anime studio specializing in 3D hentai.
That morning, Diane injects a drug into her superior, Karen’s, water. At the airport, Karen is in a daze at bag check. Two men grab her, steal her keys, and put her in the trunk of her Audi TT.
Because of the situation with Karen, Volf puts Diane in charge of the negotiation. Diane reports this to a handler, who gives her instructions.
Diane, with her coworker, Hervé, seals the deal. Someone, however, has left the box of the drug she injected on her desk with a note saying, “You forgot something.”
Rights in hand, Diane goes into negotiations with an American distributor called Demonlover, led by Elaine.
Demonlover has one major competitor, Mangatronics. This deal would eliminate Mangatronics from the competition.
Diane learns Demonlover may be a front for an interactive, real-time torture site called Hellfire Club.
Elaine praises the site but claims no affiliation.
Diane’s handler advises her to break in and steal data from Elaine’s hotel room. Before she can finish, Elaine walks in and seals Diane’s fate to spiral into the darkness.
The anxious Sonic Youth soundtrack gives a beautiful and unnerving tension to every moment of this movie.
The early 00s grays make every space feel dead and sterile, so the graphic content comes bleeding through, juxtaposed with the passive eyes of its audience.
In Irma Vep, Assayas asked what the future of French film holds. He investigates the impact of the internet on the proliferation of pornography and violence. Like Irma Vep, he does not answer any questions. And it is one that we are still learning the ramifications of.
As someone who grew up during the Wild West days of the internet, I remember rotten.com, bestgore.com, and folks sharing 2 Girls 1 Cup like it was Keyboard Cat. Thankfully, I was a pussy by internet standards and avoided most of it. It’s a rare positive aspect of my religious upbringing.
The corporatization of the internet has pushed this content to the recesses. It’s still more accessible than ever. Installing passive content-blocking software can only accomplish so much.
Morality isn’t the concern. Censorship does not and has never worked. It’s a question of media literacy and trying to understand what this content does to our brains.