The original music video to the song, filmed by Agustí Villaronga in Romania over two days, shows Farmer portraying two women in a warehouse, with scarecrows made by Swiss artist Martial Leiter.
The song received a mixed critical reception from fans and the general public, reviews ranging from "unconvincing" and "vulgar" to "bold" and "catchy".
[1] In January 2005, the exact title, "Fuck Them All", was eventually presented as a strong possibility by the French magazine Voici, which also provided the theme of the song – the war of the sexes.
[2] As noted by author and expert of French charts Élia Habib, the song title was in "the language of Shakespeare, which the singer had not used since her 1992 single "Beyond My Control"".
[3] At the time, many fans, however, believed that this title was a joke or a rumor as it sounded too much like a direct provocation, even a scathing insult, which was rather unusual in Farmer's career.
The single was played for the first time on 8 February 2005 on many radio stations, including NRJ which broadcast it every 30 minutes,[1] preceded by a medley of Farmer's previous hits.
The photo for the cover was taken by Robin and shows Farmer sitting on the roof of a building near the Gare du Nord in Paris.
[8] An international CD maxi version was also released but under the title "F**k Them All" to avoid censorship, with a sticker "Parental advisory – Explicit content" attached.
[10] According to journalist Alice Novak, the song begins with "trippy and mysterious" notes played on keyboards, then continues with "fast and nervous" sounds on the drum machine; the tone is "rather dark, hypnotic", with an "swaying and repetitive" end which uses "the machinery of the lyrics of some rap groups".
[11] Author Erwan Chuberre deemed the lyrics "easy, but deep" and contain an allusion to Farmer's friend Marie Trintignant, who died in 2003.
In the first couplet, she evokes "the role of women in History", recalling that "all the great men had on their side a woman to support, assist and advise them".
[15] To Marc Bitton of Public who wrote his article before the single release, "lyrics are both crude and colorful", including "sex and vulgarity", and said that the song was likely to be censored, which was, at his point of view, the real purpose of the singer.
[16] According to the psychologist Hugues Royer, the song is "an artistic utopia" and a call to feminists, including the novelist Catherine Breillat, but is not a "political project".
[18] The scenario was written by Farmer and directed by Spanish film director Agustí Villaronga, then broadcast on television from 9 March 2005.
[28] Deemed as "gothic" by Jean-Rémy Gaudin-Bridet of Télé Star,[29] the video has "undeniable aesthetic qualities" and allows "great freedom of interpretation", according to author Erwan Chuberre.
[30] The French magazine Télé 7 Jours published several analyses proposed on the Internet, which gave mixed reviews, and provided results from a survey revealing that 54% of respondents deemed the video as "pleasant", while 36% expressed total satisfaction.
[32] According to Royer, the video shows a personal dimension in which Farmer "finally crushes her interior demons" and "wants to get rid of her trappings as a scapegoat".
[38] French newspaper Ouest-France gave a rather negative review of the song, saying ""Fuck Them All" is done to revive the provocative aura which is the singer's business (...).
[40] Despite being highly critical of the album Avant que l'ombre..., Swiss magazine L'Hebdo stated: "Very good time surprisingly succeeded, "Fuck Them All" furiously avenges all women sacrificed on the altar of male conquest".
[43] Élia Habib, an expert on French charts, said: "For "Fuck Them All", to succeed in persisting on the podium, it will have to count on a broader basis of support than that of her traditional fans, [because they are] sufficiently numerous to send the single of their idol in the top 10 in its first week of release, but not to retain it inside the following weeks, as the last superstar's singles had regularly proved it, except "Les Mots" and "C'est une belle journée", which were general public hits".