Baise-Moi Reviews

Which side are you on?

This film produced a storm of controversy when first released (excellently documented by the way in the DVD extras). Baise-Moi will almost certainly split the viewing public. It is a film you will either love or hate. Personally I loved the film for its gritty reality and the questions that it asked of me. Baise-Moi is a simple enough story. Two girls meeting unexpectedly and going on a murderous and lustful road trip. But Baise-Moi also has a certain innocence about it. This is surprising when you consider that there is graphic sex and violence in this film. However, the innocence comes from the way in which the film was made (on digital video). Essentially the film asks which is the real pornography? Sex or violence? Or perhaps it is a mixture of both. It also examines issues of gender and of the punk revolution that was taking place in France at the time. Of course some of the violence is pointless, but perhaps the point of it. Be warned the film is extremely graphic in its depiction of sex and anyone who is offended by actual penetration should steer clear of this film. But I do think they are important in context of the film. Actually the whole film is asking us if it is possible for a violent film to incite violence and consequently Baise-Moi is an important film in cinematic history

All shock value, little content

Two women meet up and start going on a rampage through France, having sex with complete strangers and killing them as they see fit. As you can expect from such a premise, the nudity in this film is major, excessively so. The borderline hardcore pornography displayed in this film is what has given it such an undeserved reputation. Fellatio, masturbation, gang rape; the film does its hardest to shock you at every oppurtunity and it works.

This however, does not a good film make. The plot is as flimsy as my outline above and the violence in the film no where near matches that of the nudity - cheap looking deaths with blatantly fake blood that does nothing to make the film any the more likeable.

Watch solely to see what all the fuss is about, and then never again.

Disturbing

The most gripping, disturbing and, at once, arousing film I have ever experienced. With 'no holds barred' it documents the final drug, alcohol and sex induced rampage of two desparate women. Left numb and alienated from any sensation we might dub as being 'decent' by the weakness-induced brutality of the men around them, these women wreak havoc leaving a trail of death and shattered male egos in their wake.

No discernible message, but what a way to go!!

Here's Where You Decide If You'll Like This Film

Given the strong feelings above, you need an easy way to decide whether you want to rent this film or not. So here it is. If you like Tarantino, you'll like this. If you don't like Tarantino, you won't.

Imagine the rough premise of Thelma & Louise, directed by Tarantino, in France, with sex scenes that, frankly, are incredible they got past the censors (we are talking explicit scenes of oral sex here, so if this is likely to upset/offend you, DO NOT RENT!!).

DO NOT expect this to be a porn film, however. Porn films are all about sex, with (sometimes) a bit of plot to link the sex scenes. The sex scenes here, while explicit, are just a small part of the overall plot of the movie.

I thought it was great. You'll have to make up your own mind, but you are unlikely to leave without an opinion!

oh my god

this is one sick film and i loved every bit of it. that all i can say about it, u need to see it for yourself to belive it 5/5

[Highly rated reviewer]

Interesting debate, uninteresting film

This is one of those cases where if you were to watch the Making Of.. docu first you'd think you were about to sit down to one of the most important films in recent memory but what you would actually end up watching would be disappointing to say the least. The filmmakers had the right idea and I applaud their punk approach to this project, getting on board ex-porn actors to take part and really stretching the limit on what is acceptable in 'mainstream' cinema etc. Many interesting debates were raised by the movie but it's a sad fact that these debates were more interesting than the movie itself - although there are good elements there, the characters are pretty poor, the plot is weak and the sexual violence is too often pointless, beyond the overall scope of trying to provoke.

[Highly rated reviewer]

Baise Moi

Two women; rape victim Manu (Rafaella Anderson) and prostitute Nadine (Karen Bach) go on a rampage of sex and murder through France.

I feel that with this film I ought to begin with a warning. Baise Moi is not a film for everyone. It basically consists of graphic violence and hardcore sex almost all the way through. Not, one suspects, a film to take your granny to.

I have read two types of reviews of Baise Moi. Type A proclaims it a feminist masterpiece. Type B dismisses it as nothing more than violent, badly made, porn. This review will be neither of those.

F**k Me is in fact the more appropriate translation of the title Baise Moi but was rejected in favour of Rape Me because F**k Me sounded too much like a come on. This is not alien territory as far as Baise Moi is concerned, where it goes censorship follows. The film was given an almost unheard of X certificate in its native France. Here too it has met with problems; BBFC have cut 10 seconds of unsimulated sex (specifically a penetration shot) from a rape scene near the start of the film. It is this slightly cut version that I am reviewing.

Baise Moi is based on a novel by Virginie Despentes, one of the film's directors (the other, Coralie Trinh Thi, came to directing from a career in porn). From the start the film is shocking in the explicitness of both its sex and violence. The rape scene comes perhaps 10 minutes into the film; it is prolonged and deeply disturbing, not least because the sex (despite the cut) is clearly unsimulated. Much has been made in the past of how graphic, prolonged and difficult to watch the rape at the end of The Accused is; Baise Moi tops it on all counts. Many people would dismiss the scene as unnecessary. I disagree, the rape sets Manu on her course, it's the first event that really drives the plot of the film. It needs to be explicit so that we believe her actions later.

What turns Nadine into the killer she becomes is less clear; her first murder seems motiveless and this is a great problem with the film. While it is easy to see what drives Manu to attack men it is harder to see why Nadine does the same (though her life as a prostitute, shown in hardcore detail early in the film, seems to be used as one of the triggers)

The first two sex scenes (Nadine's trick and Manu's rape) are necessary and propel the plot forward. Though it is highly debatable whether being unsimulated actually makes their point any stronger but after these scenes the sex (which remains unsimulated throughout) seems slotted in. Were the sex and the killing related it would be easy to see why the sex scenes are kept in. The fact that the two are mutually exclusive must lead to a questioning of the directors motives in leaving the sex in.

The violence is just as explicit as the sex (though the violence, of course, is simulated) two moments, both Manu's doing, stand out. In the first she shoots a man (I won't say who as I don't want to spoil the plot) in the head. I've only seen one shooting in a film that is as convincing and that is at the end of Boy's Don't Cry. The second is certainly new cinematic territory for me and fortunately we are spared the aftermath of the moment Manu puts her gun between a man's buttocks and fires. The violence however is justified. Not only does it drive the story it is the story and it unites the two main characters by giving them no option but to trust each other. On top of this I am all for explicit violence in cinema for adults. I would rather a film acknowledge the results of violence (as this film does) than ignore them (as in a ludicrous moment in Con Air wherein Nicolas Cage is shot in the arm and not only keeps moving but hits the shooter with his injured arm).

Karen Bach and Rafaella Anderson; both, as you might expect, former porn actresses acquit themselves as well as can be expected. This is not really an actor’s film. The script does them few favors (If the subtitles are at all accurate) but their performances (Bach's in particular) are brave and convincing. By the end, uncomfortable though it was, I had come to, not like them, but certainly hope that both of the characters lived through the film.

The directors, both debuting, wisely keep the visuals very simple. The only moment that doesn't quite work is the rape scene, which is poorly shot using a hand-held camera, which is constantly moving, making the scene even more difficult to watch.

I was caught up in the story of Manu, Nadine and their crimes. To a degree that I wish they had cut all the extraneous sex and simply concentrated on the crime aspect of the story. Baise Moi is not the revolutionary feminist piece that some have read it as but to dismiss it as nothing more than porn is facile and wrong. There is a great film within Baise Moi, but this isn't it.

Hard-core violence

Hard-core porn, i.e. full-on penetrative sex combined with bloody slaughter. This film is short at just over an hour long, but you won't forget it in a hurry.

French Thelma and Louise

Shocking, violent, sexually explicit, this film leaves nothing to the imagination. A French Thelma and Louise who take revenge on the patriarchal world by adopting the behaviour and attitude of violent men. After a truly horrific rape scene at the start, the girls go on a mind boggling fest of shagging and killing.

At times an eye opener, we really do see the tables turned on men, visually as well as narratively, and how unused to it we are... Ultimately Baise Moi is unconvincing with its overuse of sex and violence and characters too underdeveloped to leave any sense of worth.

Refreshing

To dismiss a film as “merely pornography” because it tries to arouse you sexually would be as vapid as dismissing one as “merely comedy” because it tries to make you laugh.

It’s an uncomfortable fact that things that turn us on sexually, just like things that make us laugh, are not necessarily in line with our moral convictions.

This is a good film. It seems to me that male directors like Tarantino and Lynch have been playing around with violent fantasies for decades. Fantastic, that’s the sort of thing art is for.

The fact that this film is directed by two women doesn’t mean that they are trying to get revenge on men or any such nonsense. They are trying to express their fantasies in exactly the same artistic way as male directors.

I don’t think it is aimed at either men or women, and certainly doesn’t attempt to score any feminist points.