Huge box office failure: 25 years later, this masterpiece is definitely worth rediscovering!

It’s a truly authentic masterpiece that deserves to be better known, becoming iconic over the years. Directed by the late Antonia Bird, who left us eleven years ago, Voras was released to general indifference in France in the early summer of 1999, attracting barely 25,000 spectators. It was exactly 25 years ago…

In the United States, it was an absolute blast: grossing more than $2 million in American territory, for a $12 million budget. In France at the time, there was no question of a Twentieth Century Fox film being released on DVD until a fan petition demanded its release. This shows how hard fate was on the film.

Especially since, behind the scenes, the production was particularly busy. “It was very difficult to shoot” told us about the always excellent Guy Pearce visiting Paris in 2012 to promote Lock Out when we asked him. a glutton. “The decisions were political. We had to rebel and hire a third director, Antonia. The first one was fired after 15 days of shooting. We had a lot of problems, including the soundtrack of the film, because Fox wanted to take over. Michael Nyman“.

Among the reasons for the film’s dismal failure in theaters: the studio’s marketing department’s inability to properly market the film by forcing it into the box office. is this a western In a sense yes, but not only that. An authentic horror movie? Obviously yes, but that would be too simplistic. A political film? absolutely. All this at once? Of course. Ultimately, an unclassifiable work that combines several genres does not belong to one in particular.

Tell me who you eat, I’ll tell you who you are

Set against the backdrop of the 1846-1848 war between Mexico and the United States, Voras also evokes famous stories from the conquest of the West. This is the tragedy of the Donner Passage. In the winter of 1847-1848, a group of emigrants on their way to California found themselves under the snow in an isolated region, difficult to access. After exhausting their food and then eating the teams and mounds, the emigrants devoured the bodies of their dead…

Filled with especially cruel black humor, moments of pure fear, some blinding shots (Guy Pearce’s cliff fall, which we still wonder about filming), set to music that is both awkward and terrifying, signed by the tandem of Michael Nyman and Damon Albarn, Vores also benefits from a titanic cast: Robert Carlyle, absolutely brilliant in the film, Guy Pearce, Geoffrey Jones, David Arquette and even Neal McDonough.

We save the best for last: the cannibalism mentioned (and shown) in the film is far from pure political protest. Because America was built by devouring its own children.

“Tell me who you eat, I’ll tell you who you are” announced the film’s French poster tagline. It seems pretty good. As Colonel Ives, played by Robert Carlyle, would say: “Eat deliciously!” If you have a strong stomach, of course…