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Demi Moore attends The Fourth Annual Academy Museum Gala
at Academy Museum of Motion Pictures on October 19, 2024 in
Los Angeles, California. ©Amy Sussman/Getty Images

Today, at the age of 61, Demi is a winner again. Show- The film, with some quite frightening horror scenes, is
casing rare intelligence and lucidity, she agreed to star in the a provocation. It wants to induce us to reflect on the signif-
sci-fi horror The Substance, the second feature by French icance of women’s bodies in a society based on image and
director Coralie Fargeat. The film won the best screenplay how the inevitable physical obsolescence brings with it a cul-
award at the last Cannes Film Festival and there is talk of a tural and atavistic prejudice. Whereby, at a certain point, even
possible Oscar nomination for Demi: that would be a first. In for the most beautiful women the spotlight turns off. And here
this film, she plays Elisabeth Sparkle, a diva with a tarnished comes the frantic recourse to surgery or whatever substance
career, who lives off a television program of gymnastic ex- (precisely) will work to interrupt the decline.
ercises. She is still credible, with that body (just like Demi), And Demi? Judging by The Substance and also by recent
but the network managers want to replace her with a young- red carpet appearances to promote the film, she has retained
er woman. And this is where Elisabeth decides to take “the her beauty. Whether it’s gymnastics or a scalpel, genetic luck
substance” and “give birth” to her younger version, played by or unwavering willpower, it doesn’t matter. She is Demi Moore,
Margaret Qualley. and she is not afraid to have her knees scrutinized.

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