Audience at Cannes disgusted by vomit scene in new film ‘Club Zero’

Prepare to be grossed out, as ‘Club Zero’ premiered at the Cannes Festival, leaving audience members shocked by clear messaging around disordered eating.

‘Club Zero’ premiered on Monday, with Mia Wasikowska, 33, starring in a teen-cult thriller directed by Jessica Hausner.

What are the critics saying?

The vomit scene was apparently so gross that audience members had to look away, with one even questioning out loud, “Is it over yet?!”. Most people either gasped or laughed nervously at the provocative scene.

Wasikowska plays the role of Miss Novak, a nutrition teacher at an elite preparatory school trying to teach the kids the importance of “Conscious Eating”, a straightforward form of disordered eating.

Unfortunately, by the time the parents realize what has influenced their children’s eating habits, the cult-like mentality has spread like wildfire and proliferated their impressionable minds to believe that starvation is the way to “wellness”.

The most disturbing scene is when a teen regurgitates her food and eats the vomit while her parents watch. Ksenia Devriendt plays the character.

‘Club Zero’ featured a disclaimer at the screening’s start that offered a trigger warning for disordered eating and featured a note in its end credits that said no actors lost weight to film the movie. It received a five-minute standing ovation despite the dark themes in question.

The inspiration for the film

Austrian director Jessica Hausner wrote in her director’s note that the film is meant to question how parents can stay updated on what is happening at their children’s schools when they “have neither the time nor the means to.”

“We live in a meritocracy that makes us work increasingly more ... the movie is set in a boarding school to emphasize the dependency of parents on teacher,”  wrote Hausner. “In our society, teaching is often badly paid and not valued enough, yet it should be a highly respected job and paid accordingly.”

Jessica Hausner was inspired by her own experiences in the ‘80s at an all-girls Catholic school where eating very little was the model of inspiration.

“We would only chew on sugar-free gum and were disgusted by a girl who ate an egg sandwich during break,” she says. “Secretly, we admired her because she didn’t care about what we thought. It was an interesting dynamic.”