Carne

Carne is a French crime drama about a butcher raising his daughter alone. She has autism and does not speak, and their life together follows an unchanging routine. When the butcher comes to believe that a young man has tried to assault her, he attacks the man in a fit of violence. The attack has serious legal consequences for him, setting off a collapse that affects both his business and his sense of self. The film follows that downward turn rather than the act itself.

The film runs 38 minutes and was written and directed by Gaspar Noé, who also produced it with Lucile Hadzihalilovic through Les Cinémas de la Zone. It was Noé's first film, made before I Stand Alone, which later continued the story of the same central character. Philippe Nahon plays the butcher, with Blandine Lenoir as Cynthia, Marie Berto as Cynthia's mother, Frankie Pain, and Lucile Hadzihalilovic as a nurse.

Carne was released in 1991 and is the earliest entry in the director's filmography that runs through Irreversible, Enter the Void, Love, Climax, Lux Æterna and Vortex. Its ratings are strong for a short debut: on IMDb it holds 7 out of 10 from around 8,500 votes, while on TMDB it sits at 6.8 out of 10 from roughly 256 votes. The much larger IMDb vote count reflects the film's reputation as a starting point for Noé's later work.