Michel Houellebecq jeered at Locarno

Michel Houellebecq (pictured), the enfant terrible of French literature, is getting his come-uppance. His first outing as a film director has been treated with ridicule and incredulity. Hailed by some in France as a genius and by others as an Islamophobe, a sex-obsessed drunkard and a male chauvinist pig, Houellebecq has just witnessed several critics walk out of the first showing of his debut film, an adaptation of his latest novel The Possibility of an Island, at the Locarno film festival. Others giggled and made rude remarks.

"This film is of quite exemplary tedium," declared Maurizio Porro, critic of the Italian newspaper Corriere della Serra. "It is not in the slightest bit involving... and is sadly lacking not only in substance but also in basic narrative structure. (It is) hard to make poetry out of confusion." Brigitte Baudin, of Le Figaro, proclaimed the film both "catastrophic" and "ridiculous". She said: "Michel Houellebecq is hotly debated by literary circles but he will undoubtedly be massacred by the film critics." The Swiss newspaper Le Temps retitled the film "The Possibility of a Shipwreck".

Houellebecq has made many enemies because of his apocalyptic view that western civilisation is collapsing. He once called Islam "stupid", leading to his being prosecuted for promoting racial hatred. He was cleared. The Possibility of an Island is about a future world in which the great monotheistic religions, which he professes to hate, are replaced by cults.

It may not have been the subject matter so much as the writer's insistence on directing the film himself that led to so much abuse. Critics complained that the costumes, characters and gadgets resembled those from a 1950s science fiction B movie or an early black and white episode of Doctor Who. The criticism is not likely to shock Houellebecq, who thrives on controversy and considers himself to be an artistic martyr. In a leaflet presenting the film, he describes himself as "sincerely detested by everyone who is anything in French culture".