"The Substance" at Gandules

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Film still from "The Substance" directed by Coralie Fargeat (France, UK, USA, 2024).

An irresistible half-science fiction, half-terror gender romp, in which French director Coralie Fargeat (Revenge) creates a biting satire of aesthetic pressure, the dictatorship of beauty and the obsession with eternal youth.

French director Coralie Fargeat was ahead of Ozempic with this cross between science fiction and horror. Its protagonist, Elisabeth Sparkle, a former television star who falls out of favor when younger talent arrives, comes across a miraculous black-market substance. If she injects it, she’ll be young again. She’ll be so young, beautiful and perfect that her world will no longer be in danger. Taking this as her starting point, the director of Revenge (2017) launches a biting attack on the dictatorship of beauty, the obsession with eternal youth and, above all, the aesthetic pressure that women face.

Winner of the Best Screenplay at Cannes and the Oscar for the Best Makeup and Hairstyling (nominated in five categories, unusual for a horror film), it is an irresistible, colorful, deranged gender romp with a very particular vision of body horror.

With unprecedented audacity, it combines references to B movies such as Re-animator (1985) and Rejuvenator (1988) with formal nods to Stanley Kubrick and David Cronenberg.

The film will be screened in original version and subtitled in Catalan.

A film in the 2026 edition of Gandules Cinema in the Open Air.

Summer Cinema Under the Stars

Barcelona’s summer film festivals invite viewers to spend a balmy evening on the beach or in a courtyard watching an assortment of classic and contemporary flicks. Check out our article Summer Cinema Under the Stars where you'll discover the perfect place to spend an afternoon out of the heat or a night enjoying a film under the stars.

For more events check our online events calendar.