The dispute over the ban of an alleged sex film with the French writer Michel Houellebecq is entering the next round. Houellebecq told the German Press Agency on Thursday that he would appeal against a Dutch court ruling. The 65-year-old author lost a lawsuit against a Dutch art collective on Tuesday. The civil court ruled that the film, starring Houellebecq, will not be banned as requested by the author.
Houellebecq wanted to ban the film, which some media has labeled as porn, after seeing the trailer. In it, the author was seen shirtless kissing a young woman. According to the court ruling, Houellebecq and Dutch filmmaker Stefan Ruitenbeek of the collective Kirac had signed a contract in which the author agreed to take part in the project and have sex with several young women on camera.
Houellebecq’s lawyers said before the Amsterdam judge that he was depressed and drunk when he signed the contract. However, the judge did not find this credible, because the recordings would have taken place some time after the signing of the contract and Houellebecq had willingly participated in it. The artist collective speaks of an art film in which the boundary between fiction and truth is not always clear. The film was originally scheduled to be released online on March 11th.