NRC — Michel Houellebecq: ‘It was very stupid to sign that contract’

27 March 2023.

‘If I lose on Tuesday, I will keep litigating for as long as the court allows. And then… if I lose, I lose.’ On the eve of the ruling in Michel Houellebecq’s case against the art collective KIRAC, the writer wants to tell his story. While the controversy over the ‘Houellebecq porn’ swirled around the world, he remained relatively quiet for a long time. He did not want to give the impression that he was trying to influence the legal process, he says. ‘But I’m not obeying any more.’

There are many theories about Houellebecq’s motives for having sex with several women on camera. The media speculated that this was the logical endpoint of his strategic game of provoking social norms. But listening to him, there is nothing strategic about it. He was careless, naive, and claims to have been misled.

On the telephone, he sounds distressed. He speaks earnestly and slowly, keen to be understood properly. His story begins with a deep sigh. ‘KIRAC invited me to cut a ribbon and open an exhibition in Amsterdam. I accepted. It seemed interesting. A few weeks later, Stefan Ruitenbeek [KIRAC’s founder] emailed to say that he and porn actress Jini Jane were in Paris to film gangbangs for Jini’s OnlyFans account. We were going out to dinner, but I was depressed, so I didn’t go. My wife did.’

According to video footage submitted to the court as evidence, Houellebecq’s wife Lysis Li suggested during dinner that they record a sex film instead of holding the ribbon-cutting ceremony.

That is what happened. Houellebecq, Li and Jane had a threesome, and Ruitenbeek filmed it: it was intended for Jane’s OnlyFans account. The writer and his wife wore masks to remain unrecognisable.

‘Well, there was sex,’ says Houellebecq. ‘Afterwards, I refused to give them my passport [which Jane needs to authorise the videos on OnlyFans]. I didn’t know that was necessary. But then it would be too easy to recognise me. I didn’t want that. I thought it would be anonymous, and that only Jini’s subscribers would see it.’

Jane was unhappy; she felt used. Li emailed KIRAC to say that matters of this kind should be arranged in advance in future.

‘Bon, that was the end of the sexual part of the story.’

‘I desire you’

The encounter in Paris and the conversation with Li gave Ruitenbeek another idea. He asked Houellebecq to come to Amsterdam to have sex, together with Li, with several young women who were fans of his. Houellebecq accepted the ticket. By email, they agreed that Houellebecq’s genitals would not appear on screen at the same time as his face, allowing Houellebecq to deny that it was him in the sexual footage.

At the hotel in Amsterdam, however, things broke down. ‘I was in bed with Isa [one of the women who came to the hotel], and we were kissing. Ruitenbeek wanted me to take her in my arms by the window. To say things to her like: “I desire you.” But I couldn’t. I wasn’t attracted to her.’

After two more fruitless encounters, the project ended. ‘Nobody was happy. Ruitenbeek didn’t have his sex scenes.’

In response, Ruitenbeek says that Houellebecq was indeed intimate with several girls. Among other things, he allegedly penetrated a woman with his fingers.

Although the agreement was to have sex with several women, Houellebecq says he never intended to have sex in Amsterdam.

‘It is complicated to explain. But I don’t want to have sex with new people any more. I’m afraid of the human papillomavirus. It spreads through sex and can cause oral cancer. That is the greatest imaginable horror for me. When I went to bed with Jini, I didn’t yet know it existed.’

Why, then, did he come to Amsterdam? Houellebecq thinks for a long time. ‘It sounds absurd… My wife had written a script based on a book of mine. I thought that could be part of the film. Afterwards, it turned out not to be. And I thought: you can film things other than fucking. Besides, the Amsterdam artist Tarik Sadouma had painted a large, interesting portrait of me. He wanted to meet me.’

This should not be accepted in a normal country

If it were only a matter of the footage of Houellebecq in Amsterdam, Houellebecq would not mind. But in Amsterdam, he signed a contract stating that the sex between Jini, Houellebecq and Li in Paris would also form part of the film. When Houellebecq and Li saw that footage in the trailer, the writer decided to sue KIRAC. ‘It was very stupid to sign that contract,’ Houellebecq says, with regret in his voice.

‘I didn’t read it. I read only paragraph 1.3, which stated that my penis and face would not be shown at the same time.

‘I should have had it written into the contract that I didn’t want anything sexual on screen. But I wasn’t honest when I signed it. I knew I wouldn’t have sex. So I thought, bon, he can film my face, but he cannot force me to be naked. I thought I wasn’t taking any risk.’

Houellebecq’s lawyer calls the agreement the worst contract she has ever read. KIRAC’s lawyer calls it a standard film contract.

Houellebecq: ‘What you have to understand is that a contract that applies retroactively, as this one does to the footage from Paris, is illegal in France. I didn’t even know that was possible. It should not be accepted in a normal country.’

Consent

The debate surrounding the film revolves around the meaning of consent. And not only Houellebecq’s consent. The woman who made love with Houellebecq in Amsterdam feels used, now that the writer wants to ban the film. ‘I don’t feel that I used her,’ says Houellebecq. ‘That was not my intention. I think Ruitenbeek used both of us.

‘I have nothing against the girls. But it is my body, and I don’t want it used without my permission.’

He fears for his reputation and his state of mind if the footage becomes public. ‘It will make me paranoid. People will look at me strangely. I’ve already lost friends from the Catholic right in France. I haven’t heard a word from them. I’m like a pariah.’

Houellebecq now regrets never having watched the KIRAC films Ruitenbeek sent him. He is referring, among others, to Honeypot, the KIRAC film in which conservative philosopher Sid Lukkassen had a sex date with a ‘left-wing girl’ to combat polarisation. No sex took place. Lukkassen felt humiliated and called KIRAC in tears, unsuccessfully asking them to stop the film being shown.

‘I think Ruitenbeek trapped me the way he trapped Sid Lukkassen. He wanted to do the same thing, but with someone more famous. When he didn’t get any sex scenes in Amsterdam, he went back to the footage with Jini. It feels like blackmail.

‘It is an exaggeration, but I feel raped. I feel ashamed, although I don’t think I should. And for the first time in my life, sex feels like something unpleasant. My sexual desires have completely disappeared.’