Two Women, Guns, Violence and Sex (Baise-Moi (DVD))

Member Name: Hunting_Bears

Product:	Baise-Moi (DVD)
Date:	28/05/04 (600 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: a film about women, good themes

Disadvantages: violent, hardcore sex may put some viewers off, though i can't think who?

A couple of years ago there were a wave of French films that were causing a spot of bother with the BBFC (British Board of Film Classification). These films were portraying images of sex on screen in a revolutionary way. Films such as 'Irreversible' featured a nine-minute one take rape scene that pushed the boundaries of taste and decency, 'L'Humanite' featured the naked corpse of a child murdered by a paedophile and 'Baise Moi' featured ex-porn actresses murdering and shagging their way across France in a bloody take on 'Thelma and Louise' that was more 'Bonnie and Clyde' than Ridley Scott's 'sister's doing it for themselves' road movie.

'Baise Moi' translates as 'Shag Me' rather than the publicity translation of 'Fuck Me', the film was directed by ex-porn actress Coralie Trinh Thi and Virginie Despentes wrote the novel in the early 1990s and screenplay. The film caused so much controversy on its release that it was banned in France, one of the most liberal countries in the world.

The narrative is simple enough and seems inspired by Jean-Luc Godard's old quote 'All you need to make a film is a girl and gun' when Manu (Raefella Anderson) is raped by a gang in a Parisian suburb she becomes disillusioned with how men and society treat her and she kills her brother, parallel to this is the character Nadine (Karen Bach) a prostitute who kills her flatmate and agrees to pick up some drugs that are being ridden over the French-German border for her pimp, who is subsequently killed in a bloody shoot out. The two woman meet on the streets and decide to escape their horrid lives and travel around France meeting various men, screw them and usually kill them. I will not reveal anymore of the plot because that would spoil it.

'Baise Moi' is a tricky film to recommend because it features real scenes of sexual intercourse, though before you
all get excited or horrified the context of the film must be explained and explored. This film is not for masturbation, it is a far from sexy film, it's not pornography either. This film is about how two women take their revenge on society and men not in any kind of reactionary feminist 'we hate all men' kind of way but because the characters are criminals and victims of a class system that treats them as scum. The social context of the film is highly important, it can be read as a Marxist film, if one wants to go into that much detail but this is a consumer website and not Sight and Sound. The two characters are poor, mixed ethnic race and are the victims of the old maxim 'It's a man's world'. They mug, murder and take drugs in a deliberately over-the-top story with a punk-rock aesthetic, from using non-professional actors, real sex scenes and handheld camera.

The film uses a lot of handheld camera and this is to signify the grimy nature of the film's content and also its low budget. The film uses no lighting set ups and there are no beautiful framing techniques only sex and violence up close and personal. The acting leaves little to be desired and the first time I saw this film I felt it was stupid and deeply anti-male. On second viewing I actually discovered a deep intelligence and also the directors intent. The directors Despentes and Trinh Thi are making films about sex and violence from a female point of view. Why can't women behave has badly as men? Why can't they take drugs? Why can't they murder people? If the film was the work of a male director I believe the film would not have caused such controversy, though the scene in which the two women stick a loaded gun up a man's anus and pull the trigger is a pretty powerful statement.

The soundtrack of the film mixes ambience with punk rock and is really good, the scenes set towards the end of the film use a lot mood music tha
t recalls the dread filled noises that open Gasper Noe's tremendous 'Irreversible'. In the sex scenes sleazy dance music and punk fills the screen, the camera lingering on bodies in motion, it is anything but a turn on as the women do not seem to enjoy themselves, it's all a bit grim really.

The running time is a trim 1hr 13mins and that's not even feature length, on the DVD there is an excellent documentary about the controversy the film caused in France and how we Brits released the film without cuts, this shocked the directors somewhat, due to the British film censors being one of the most over-protective in the world. 'Baise Moi' is really important because it set the precedent for other foreign language films that contained sex scenes and extreme violence. I do not know what films real sex scenes in them will ultimately achieve but in a world that is obsessed with the body then I suppose these films will continue to blur the line between pornography and simulated sex frequently seen in Hollywood. 'Baise Moi' is an art-house film that is uncomfortable but accessible. It's not a film one would enjoy but it is important because it was directed by women in control of every aspect of the frame, in an industry dominated by men, this came as a suckerpunch and a warning. Cinema can be funny, playful and entertaining and it can also be misanthropic, horrifying and violent. France certainly make challenging cinema. My brother when he lived in Australia told me that when the film opened in Melbourne, a bunch of critics barricaded themselves in the cinema so that police could not confiscate film as they had been sent out to do by the authorities, vivre le cinema!


Directors: Virginie Despentes et Coralie Trinh Thi
Actors: Karen Bach et Raefella Anderson

Running Time: 1hr 13 mins

If you liked this I also recommend 'Funny Games', 'Irreversible', 'L'
Human
ite', 'Romance' and 'Salo: 120 Days of Sodom'.




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