Le Figaro — ‘Nothing went as planned’: Michel Houellebecq explains his appearance in an erotic film

In an opinion piece for Le Point, the celebrated writer details the circumstances in which he believes he was trapped by a Dutch producer who allegedly filmed sexual scenes without his consent.

By Eloi Passot. Published 24 March 2023 at 18:47; updated 29 March 2023 at 10:11.

‘He made us sign a contract, of which I read only one clause, because it was the sole condition intended to protect my anonymity.’ In an opinion piece for Le Point, Michel Houellebecq explained his side of the Dutch pornographic film affair. On 24 January, the Dutch collective KIRAC (Keeping It Real Art Critics), led by Stefan Ruitenbeek, released a trailer showing, among other things, the celebrated French writer in bed in the arms of a young woman. The director had announced the full film’s release for 11 March, before Michel Houellebecq began legal proceedings, blocking its release until the ruling, expected on Tuesday 28 March.

The author of Serotonin explains that, following a dinner with Stefan Ruitenbeek, he and his wife allegedly agreed to film ‘a threesome sex scene’ involving himself, his wife and Jini van Rooijen, a friend of Ruitenbeek’s, ‘on condition that [his] anonymity was preserved […]’. According to Houellebecq, this film was to be added to the ‘films on Jini’s OnlyFans account, [which] are accessible only to her paying subscribers’, while he and his wife were to ‘wear masks’. ‘The sexual scene took place,’ Michel Houellebecq continues, explaining that he ultimately ‘did not supply [his] passport, a necessary condition imposed by OnlyFans for the film to be distributed’.

‘Stefan Ruitenbeek agreed that neither my face nor my wife’s would be filmed in any sexual shot.’ — Michel Houellebecq.

In subsequent email exchanges, Stefan Ruitenbeek ‘[…] sent me photographs of various women who, he said, wanted to have sexual relations with me’, Michel Houellebecq continues. ‘My wife wrote the outline of a screenplay, inspired both by one of my books, The Possibility of an Island, and by personal memories.’ Stefan Ruitenbeek was to be ‘the director’, while the writer was ‘prepared to take on an acting role’, including participation ‘in pornographic scenes if the screenplay contained any’, on condition ‘that neither my face nor my wife’s would be filmed in any sexual shot. [Stefan Ruitenbeek] accepted that condition.’

‘Nothing went as planned’

The author then explains that he travelled to Amsterdam with his wife in December to ‘meet the women Mr Ruitenbeek had lined up for sexual encounters’, but that these ‘encounters could have constituted a casting session […] and under no circumstances material intended for distribution’. Yet, once they arrived, ‘nothing went as planned,’ he continues. ‘First, we were filmed as soon as we got off the train, without ever having given permission […]. That evening, Mr Ruitenbeek came to our hotel room, still accompanied by his cameraman,’ the writer recounts. ‘That was where he made us sign a contract, of which I read only one clause, because it was the sole condition, intended to protect my anonymity, that I had asked Mr Ruitenbeek to respect, given the film’s probably pornographic nature. As for the rest, I assumed it was a normal contract, like the many I have signed in my life.’

‘I demanded that he and his cameraman leave my room. I have not seen him since.’ — Michel Houellebecq.

‘The following morning, Mr Ruitenbeek returned with Isa, one of the women whose photographs he had sent me,’ Houellebecq continues. ‘[…] I exchanged kisses with Isa — these are the scenes in the trailer — and then everything deteriorated.’ After several disagreements, ‘I ended up hiding under a sheet to avoid being filmed,’ explains the French writer, who says he subsequently had ‘no further contact, physical or even verbal’ with the young woman. ‘When Mr Ruitenbeek states in his interview with Vice magazine that “in all, four women slept with Houellebecq”, that is a pure and simple lie,’ declares the author of The Map and the Territory. On 23 December, ‘following a violent discussion during which my wife and I were insulted by Mr Ruitenbeek,’ the writer explains, ‘I demanded that he and his cameraman leave my room. I have not seen him since.’

After ‘seeing with disgust’ the ‘trailer made by Mr Ruitenbeek, […] a prelude to a longer film that he described as “pornographic”, […] I immediately took legal steps to try to prohibit this distribution, to which I had in no way agreed,’ Michel Houellebecq concludes. The celebrated writer, once considered a contender for the Nobel Prize, recently stirred up another controversy with remarks about Muslims made during an exchange with Michel Onfray for the magazine Front Populaire.