Court decides which French writer can see his porn film before release

A Dutch appeals court ruled on Tuesday that controversial French novelist Michel Houellebecq can see a pornographic film he starred in before its release after failing to ban the film.

Judges in March upheld a lower court ruling rejecting the 67-year-old author’s attempt to block the release of Dutch filmmaker Stefan Ruitenbeek’s film “Kirac 27”.

However, the Amsterdam appeals court said Ruitenbeek had violated an agreement that the film would be a “game of fact and fiction”, making it unclear whether Houellebecq actually had sex in the film or was used as a stunt double.

The director “seriously undermined the illusion” by giving an interview to the news site Deputy in February, saying Houellebecq was “very good in bed”, the jurors noted.

Houellebecq, whose best-selling works include “Submission” and “Atomised”, must therefore be allowed to see the film four weeks before its release, the court ruled.

The writer can then use that period to file an additional appeal against the showing of the film if he wishes, the judges said.

The planned launch date of May 26 has already been postponed and the art collective to which Ruitenbeek belongs will be fined 25,000 euros if it fails to comply, they added.

An online trailer for the film released in January, which has since been removed from the internet, showed Houellebecq, shirtless, kissing and fondling a young woman in bed.

Houellebecq complained that the film damaged his reputation and that while under the influence of alcohol he signed an unfair contract and tried his luck in the French court, but lost the case.

“Our client is very satisfied with the overturning of the first instance verdict and with the fact that the court has largely ruled in his favor,” his lawyer, Jacqueline Schaap, said in a statement to AFP.

“In these circumstances, it is correct that the images are shown to the customer first, so that he has the opportunity to object to certain images,” he said.

Houellebecq is one of France’s most prominent writers, but he has been accused of exploiting right-wing fears of Islam in France.

The writer will publish a book of 112 pages on May 24 about his experiences with Dutch film, publisher Flammarion reported earlier this month.