Appeal court judges in Amsterdam have ruled that the maker of an ‘art’ porn film starring French writer Michel Houellebecq must show him the film before it is uploaded to the internet.

If Houellebecq is unhappy about the final production, he is then free to go to court again to have the distribution blocked, the court said in its Tuesday verdict.

The novelist lost his first legal attempt to stop Dutch art collective Kirac issuing the film in which he has sex with several young women. The lower court ruled it “incomprehensible” that Houellebecq had not stopped participating in the recordings if he found the agreement signed with the collective to be problematic.

The writer had signed a release form agreeing to appear in the film, which said ‘the participant will be performing as a subject, for usage in artistic, fictional, documentary, performative, essayistic, erotic, pornographic films & Kirac episodes.’

The only restriction, according to the court documents, was that the film would not show his face and genitals in the same shot. Houellebecq walked out on the project before the end of the shoot at an Amsterdam hotel room after disagreements with the director.

In his appeal, Houellebecq referred to a trailer and an interview given by the filmmaker, which indicated the film would be damaging to his reputation because the filmmaker would not honour agreements they had made about a “game of fact and fiction”.

The appeal court agreed, saying there is a serious risk the film maker would not keep to the agreements and that once the film is on the internet, the damage could not be reversed. Therefore the film must be shown to Houellebecq four weeks before it is distributed, so he has time to suggest changes and voice his objections.

“If the French writer has concerns and the filmmaker will not make changes, then he can go back to court,” the court said.

Last month, judges in Paris rejected a complaint about the trailer, which Houellebecq argued damaged his private life and honour, as well as spreading lies about his wife.

Kirac, short for Keeping It Real Art Critics, hit the headlines earlier with a controversial film featuring far-right commentator Sid Lukkassen and his attempted seduction by ‘left-wing student’ and collective member Jini Jane.