If you're not familiar with filmmaker Coralie Fargeat, she wrote and directed The Substance, which was nominated for no fewer than five Academy Awards. The film tells the story of an aging actress called Elisabeth Sparkle (played by Demi Moore), who begins taking a mysterious drug to make herself appear younger, although she gradually begins to transform into a hideous monstrosity as a result. Fargeat received nominations in the Best Writing and Directing categories, with Moore being nominated for Best Leading Actress. The Substance also received a nomination for Best Picture, making it one of the few horror films to have been nominated for this particularly prestigious award.
It turns out that Fargeat is also a massive Star Wars fan, as she directed a Star Wars fan film called La Guerre des Étoiles, which is French for ‘Star Wars’. Fargeat made the film back in 1993, when she was just seventeen, making it one of the first projects she ever worked on. The fourteen-minute film was released on YouTube by Letterboxd, and it loosely retells the events of Return of the Jedi. You can watch it for yourself on YouTube, and it will certainly bring a smile to your face.
La Guerre des Étoiles features a mixture of footage and audio from Return of the Jedi alongside new footage filmed by Fargeat showing actors in delightfully cheap-looking costumes. It also includes stop-motion footage of various Star Wars action figures and vehicle playsets, which Fargeat had clearly been collecting for a while.
Although it hardly looks or feels like a professional production, you can still feel the passion which Fargeat poured into every frame of La Guerre des Étoiles. And it is undeniably fun to see the actors dressed in goofy costumes as they joyfully recreated scenes from Return of the Jedi. The costumes undeniably look like they were purchased with pocket money, but they were still recognizable enough for you to be able to tell which actors are supposed to be playing Han Solo, Princess Leia, C-3PO, the Stormtroopers and the Ewoks. Needless to say, La Guerre des Étoiles is a very silly but hugely entertaining fan film.
In the YouTube video description, Fargeat offered the following quote about La Guerre des Étoiles:
"Thirty years ago, when I was 17 years old, I made a little Star Wars film. Using my family’s camcorder, I animated my toys frame by frame in stop motion, disguised my friends as Ewoks and stormtroopers, and edited on a VHS video recorder (which was the top device at the time!). It was such an amateur endeavor, but everything I loved about making films was already there… It was the place where I felt free, passionate and alive, and able to fully express myself. It’s after I made this little film that I knew that I wanted to be a director… Today as I am nominated for Best Director, I can’t help but remember this little film… Follow your dreams!"Coralie Fargeat
In addition to The Substance, Fargeat also directed Revenge, which was similarly lauded by critics. If she does indeed win Oscars for her work on The Substance, fans will be thrilled to know that a dedicated Star Wars fan earned such prestigious accolades. Fargeat may even get a call from Lucasfilm to work on an official Star Wars production one day, and the result would no doubt be spectacular.