Bloody Oranges

In a gymnastics gym, several judges sit at a table ranking various duos in a rock dancing competition. There is discussion over whether one woman's performance should be judged more positively because she limped onto the stage, indicating that she might have a disability, which ignites an extended argument about disability politics and positive discrimination. The host of the competition (Patrice Laffont) arrives and tells the jury that they should include an elderly couple in their top 3 finalists because their sponsor wants a diverse spread of dancers.At the aforementioned rock dance competition, a handful of couples perform swing-style dance to American rock music. This includes Laurence (Lorella Cravotta) and Olivier (Olivier Saladin), an older retired couple, who receive a standing ovation. Laurence and Olivier are selected as one of the 3 couples to advance to the finals. Later, they meet with their bankers, who tell them that they are 78,000 euros in debt and must either sell their house or the bank will have it foreclosed. Laurence and Olivier express that if they win the dance competition, they will receive an SUV as a prize, which if sold would cover half of their debts. Back at home, Laurence and Olivier watch a television program in which the Minister of Finance defends his new pension reforms.Some time later, Minister of Finance Stéphane Lemarchand (Christophe Paou) meets with Thierry (Denis Podalydès), a tenor of the bar, as well as Alexandre (Alexandre Steiger), who happens to be the son of Laurence and Olivier. Lemarchand is concerned that a journalist has been asking him whether he has money hidden overseas; Thierry reassures him that nothing concerning his overseas bank accounts will ever get to the media.Elsewhere, 16-year-old Louise (Lilith Grasmug) is at her first gynecological appointment. She asks the doctor (Blanche Gardin) a series of questions about her first time having sex, and explains that there is an older boy she would like to lose her virginity to at an upcoming party.Minister of Finance Lemarchand meets with his team to brainstorm ways to come up with an extra 22 billion euros in three months. Ideas include doubling university fees ("students aren't our key voters anyway"); taking away free lunches for the children of the unemployed ("they do nothing -- they can cook for them"); and taxing abortions ("too far").Louise, bicycling home with headphones on, encounters a rude taxi driver (Pascal Tagnati) who swears at her and calls her a "slut" for riding without a bike saddle; Louise cusses him out and he drives away, chastened.Alexandre attends dinner with his mother Laurence, father Olivier, sister Celine (Céline Fuhrer), and brother-in-law Anthony (Anthony Paliotti) to celebrate Laurence's 60th birthday. Alexandre complains about the location, the drinks, and the lack of choice on the fixed menu they've chosen. The family bickers. When the check comes, Olivier's card is declined; he explains it away as being faulty, and Laurence uses hers.Minister of Finance Lemarchand sits in his living room with a camera crew, giving an exaggeratedly down-to-earth interview in an attempt to humanize him to the public. (He tells the interviewer that his biggest fault is "telling the truth.") Later, he and his wife Mathilde (Vanessa Koutseff) are directed in a corny photo shoot for the same purpose.Thierry, Alexandre, and Lemarchand sit in a sauna. Thierry tells the men that they've taken a huge risk, but that news of Lemarchand's foreign bank accounts will never ever come out -- implying that something happened with the journalist. Lemarchand is so relieved that he kisses Thierry on the forehead.Lemarchand drives down a country road in the dark. On screen, a quote from Antonio Gramsci appears: "The old world is dying, the new world struggles to be born. Now is the time of monsters." Lemarchand begs off his work and wife and phones Marco, who informs him he has "girls" where he's going. However, a tire ruptures and Lemarchand is forced to stop the car in the middle of nowhere.In a nearby house, a unnamed man (Fred Blin) sits on his couch, feeding his pet hog and watching television (on which a pensioner bemoans the reforms). Lemarchand knocks on the window and asks if he can borrow a mallet; the man in the house obliges, but recognizes Lemarchand and insists he try a "local specialty" drink before he goes. Lemarchand takes a sip and goes unresponsive, falling to the floor and foaming at the mouth; the man reveals that the drink contained fentanyl. The man then drapes an unconscious Lemarchand over an overturned chair and rapes him, comparing him gleefully to "the Republic" out loud as he does so. Intercut with the scene of Lemarchand's rape, we see Olivier and Laurence exuberantly performing their dance at the rock competition finals.At the raucous teen party, Louise finally hooks up with the object of her affections (Rémi Mesnard). Despite feeling awkward at first, Louise enjoys the sex and participates extremely energetically (to the boy's slight panic).In the gym locker room, the judges are deciding the final winners of the rock dance competition. After a spirited argument, a tie is broken and another couple -- not Laurence and Olivier -- wins the grand prize of the SUV. Later, in the bathroom, Olivier cries and Laurence comforts him.Meanwhile, the rapist binds and gags Lemarchand and puts him in the back of his truck. While driving, the rapist tells Lemarchand his origin story: he had a father who became an alcoholic and killed himself after losing his factory job due to the economy. He then immediately reveals that the story is completely made up. The rapist drives to Parliament and ties a naked, still-unconscious Lemarchand to the gates, writing "JE SUIS UN ENCULÉ" ("I AM A COCKSUCKER") on his chest before leaving him there.As Louise walks home from the party, tired and happy, the rapist pulls up behind her and kidnaps her. In the rapist's basement, he makes crepes while Louise screams, bound and gagged with plastic on the floor. The rapist sexually assaults Louise while his pet pug dog looks on.Afterwards, the rapist is asleep at his workbench; Louise frees herself and escapes into the night. She quickly changes her mind, however, and runs back into the basement, grabbing the crepe pan and knocking the rapist unconscious. She then binds the rapist to his chair and uses a reciprocating saw from the workbench to cut out his testicles, which she cooks in the microwave while she dances to the radio. Louise forces the bloodied rapist to eat his own testicles; one falls on the floor, where the pug dog eats it.That night, Laurence and Olivier bicker as they swallow bowls of pills to commit suicide. They kiss goodnight and tie plastic bags over their heads to ensure they suffocate. They kiss goodnight again, this time with the bags over their heads.In the morning, Lemarchand is found naked and tied to the gates of Parliament. On the toilet, Alexandre hears and sees the news; he also gets a call concerned that his father isn't picking up the phone. Alexandre goes to his parents' house, where he discovers them dead in bed holding hands. Later, body transport workers are seen gently prying their hands apart in order to take them away.In Alexandre's car, we hear a phone call detailing that his parents never admitted to their children that they had debt problems. Simultaneously, he encounters the rude taxi driver, who yells insults at him. Enraged, Alexandre exits his car and approaches the taxi driver, who sprays him with pepper spray. The taxi driver urinates on Alexandre's head as he lies curled on the ground in pain.A few days later, Alexandre has been assigned as Louise's lawyer. He explains that she must tell the court that her actions were in self-defense, and that she didn't know what she was doing at the time. Louise, however, wants to say that what she did was a conscious act of revenge, and insists that to do otherwise would be lying.In another room, we see Minister of Finance Lemarchand as he meets with Thierry, sore and bruised but back at work.As THE END flashes across the screen and the credits begin, Alexandre and Louise walk out of a courtroom, hounded by reporters. Louise says nothing, but gives a small smile as she walks through a crowd of cheering feminist supporters who hail her as a hero. A free woman, she exits the courthouse and takes her new boyfriend by the hand. Just then, at that same intersection, the rude taxi driver is t-boned and smashes his head on the driver's side window.