A Dutch appeals court on Tuesday ruled that controversial French novelist Michel Houellebecq must be allowed to see a porn film he starred in before it is released, after he failed to have it banned.
Judges upheld a lower court ruling in March that rejected the 67-year-old author’s bid to block the release of the film Kirac 27 by Dutch filmmaker Stefan Ruitenbeek.
However, the Amsterdam appeals court said Ruitenbeek had broken an agreement that the film should be a “game of fact and fiction” that leaves unclear whether Houellebecq actually did have sex on film, or whether a double was used.
The director “seriously undermined the illusion” by giving an interview to the Vice news site in February, in which he said that Houellebecq was “really good in bed,” judges said.
Houellebecq, whose best-selling works include Submission and Atomized, must therefore be allowed to watch the film four weeks before it is released, the court ruled.
The writer can then use that period to lodge a further appeal against the showing of the film if he chooses, the judges said.
The film’s planned release date of Friday next week has already been postponed, and the art collective that Ruitenbeek belongs to would be fined 25,000 euros (US$27,070) if it does not comply, they added.
An online trailer for the movie released in January, which has since been removed from the Internet, showed the shirtless Houellebecq kissing and fondling a young woman in bed.
Houellebecq complained that the film damaged his reputation and that he had signed an unfair contract under the influence of alcohol.
He lost a previous case in France in which he tried to ban the movie.
“Our client is very pleased that the judgement in the first instance has been overturned and that the court has largely ruled in his favor,” his lawyer Jacqueline Schaap told reporters in a statement.
“In these circumstances it is right that the images must first be shown to the client, whereby he has the opportunity to object to certain images,” Schaap said.
Houellebecq is one of France’s most prominent writers, but has been accused of tapping into right-wing fears over Islam in France.
He is to publish a 112-page book recounting his experiences with the Dutch film on Wednesday next week, the Flammarion publishing house said.
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