Virginie Despentes is a French writer, novelist, and filmmaker. Her work is an inventory of youth marginalization; it pertains to the sexual revolution lived by Generation X and to the acclimation of pornographyin public spaces through new communication techniques. With a transgressive exploration of obscenity's limits, as a novelist or a film-maker she proposes social critique and an antidote to the new moral order. Her characters deal with misery and injustice, self-violence such as drug addiction, or violence towards others such as rape or terrorism, violences she has also suffered from. She is one of the most popular French authors from this era. She was named a member of the Académie Goncourt on January 5, 2016. Despentes resigned from this position on January 5, 2020 in order to dedicate more time to writing.
Life and career
Despentes settled in Lyon, where she worked as a maid, a prostitute in "massage parlors" and peep shows, a sales clerk in a record store, and a freelance rock journalist and pornographic film critic. She moved to Paris. In 2000, she directed her first film, Baise-moi, an adaptation of her own novel, co-directed with former pornographic actress Coralie Trinh Thi. It starred Karen Lancaume and Raffaëla Anderson. Baise-moi is a contemporary example of a rape and revenge film, an exploitation films genre. Her novel Les Jolies choses was adapted for the screen in 2001 by Gilles Paquet-Brenner, with Marion Cotillard and Stomy Bugsy in the lead roles. The film was awarded the Michel d'Ornano prize at the 2001 Deauville American Film Festival. From 2004 to 2005, she wrote a blog that documented her daily life. Around this time she began identifying as a lesbian and started to date Spanish philosopher Paul B. Preciado before he transitioned to male. In 2005, she wrote three songs for the albumVa chercher la police for the group A.S. Dragon. In 2006, she published a non-fiction work, King Kong Theory. It recounts her experiences in the French sex industry, and the infamy and praise she experienced for writing Baise-Moi. In 2009 she directed her first documentary, Mutantes , which was broadcast on TV Pink. In 2010, her novel Apocalypse bébé was awarded the Renaudot prize. Bye Bye Blondie was adapted for film with Béatrice Dalle and Emmanuelle Béart. Cecilia Backes and Salima Boutebal produced a stage adaptation of King Kong Theory during the "Outside" Festival d'Avignon. In 2011, her commentary on Dominique Strauss-Kahn appeared in The Guardian. The English translation of her novel Vernon Subutex 1 was shortlisted for the 2018 Man Booker International Prize
Awards
Despentes won the 1998 Prix de Flore, and 1999 Prix Saint-Valentin for Les Jolies Choses; 2010 Prix Renaudot for Apocalypse Bébé.
