Supervenus by French Filmmaker Frédéric Doazan is shocking and illustrates the lengths some women will go to achieve the impossible standard of beauty.
Exceprts from two reviews provide an excellent description.
“Imagine a game that combines the legendary board game Operation and the endearing paper dolls we used to play with in our childhood. Now, imagine how unpleasant a plastic surgery can be. Put it all together and the result will be Supervenus, by French director Frédéric Doazan, a straightforward criticism to the contemporary concept of women’s beauty.
In as little as 2:38 minutes, Frédéric Doazan achieves to deliver a quick (and creepy) review of the evolution of the concept of beauty in society and how the canons have changed over the years: the idea of eternal youth turned into an unhealthy obsession. Thus, in ‘Supervenus’ we see the hands of surgeon opening an anatomy book where we discover a classic woman’s body. Not satisfied with what he sees, his hands begin to operate, unscrupulously changing the figure of the woman and adapting it to the trends in plastic surgery: elongated neck and legs, sharp cheekbones, thin, wasp-like waist…”
From the site Lone Wolf:
“’Supervenus’ illustrates the evolution (downward spiral?) of Western beauty standards for women, and it’s not pretty. In fact, it’s terrifying. Of course, we all know the story by heart, but Mr. Doazan adds just the right touches of horror to jolt us out of our quiet acceptance of the status quo. Supervenus literally dissects the history of the female body, and the extreme lengths women have to go through to achieve a disturbingly unnatural idealization of femininity. So much so, that in the film even motherhood becomes viewed as something unattractive and to be avoided in the name of maintaining that perfect figure.”
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