Baise-moi

Baise-moi is the second example of the recent French Graphic Rape Wave of cinema. Like a skanky French Natural Born Killers but without the talent, irony or indeed entertainment, the heavy-handed symbolism and maddening acting should have you turning off after the first 40 minutes. You continue to watch however, mainly though a fascination as to how far the director is willing to push the boundaries of good taste in order to convince us of his point. Something to do with society raping people and by-products of the system, a reflection of the perversity at the root of civilisation, monkeys with guns and Girl Power.

Joining the sensational release of Irreversible, with its centrepiece a nine minute rape scene, it could look to some that modern French cinema had found itself in a quandary, desperately seeking its next big theme in the rapidly thinning file of the last taboos. Thankfully, L'Homme du train dispelled those fears,at least for now. And maybe just two films don't make a wave, perhaps just a ripple.

However, nothing changes the fact that when the closing credits finally arrived, I was angry. Because it was rubbish. Not a patch on the glory of La Haine which dealt with a similar rage, but with far more heart and intelligence. Baise-Moi also has the worst soundtrack ever. I've got to stop wasting my life watching all these terrible films.

I first saw a poster advertising this film on a street in Helsinki, Finland in June of 2000. What caught my attention was the proud proclamation advising all readers that the movie, although itself French, had been "Banned in France". Upon returning home to New York, I discovered that one of the "Art House" movie theaters in the City was screening the film, and so (with my Finnish fiancee) decided to see what all the fuss was about. Boy, did we ever.

From the comments read here, and the reviews I knew the movie was violent and sexually explicit. Not necessarily offended by either of these two conditions, I went with an open mind to see what had perturbed the sensibilities of our Gallic cousins. Presumably, as anyone who is reading this will know, the story involves two women who embark on a crime and murder spree in France (the movie has English subtitles). The resemblance to "Thelma and Louise" however, ends with that; the sex is unusually graphic (and in copious supply) as is the violence (a lot of stomping to death, and a lot of blood and other organic matter splattering after bullet impact).

On an intellectual level, one could make the case that the film's very essence is the relationship of sex and violence (as manifested by the only sex these women know: one is a small-time prostitute, and the other has earned money from time to time by performing in pornographic films. When they, during their descent into crime and murder, have the upper hand over their sexual situations, they react only with the same violence and brutality that they themselves know and understand. It is important to note, however, that the victims of their rampage are not only creepy men interested in creepy sex, (of which there are several)but innocent passersby, a woman at an ATM, for example, as well.

I myself do not really understand why the repeated "porn-movie" shots were all that necessary, (except to depict the physical contact as cruel, unpassionate and debased) and the unrelenting gore did get rather tedious after the first few violent spasms.

It is a coarse and crude movie, but in fairness, it is dealing with coarse and crude people and equally unpleasant circumstances. From one point of view, the lives of the French underclasses is explored, and it's pretty grim; a travelogue for France it definitely is not- perhaps that's why the French banned it.

I've read a lot of the comments for this movie and think that many of you have missed the point. The directors claim this to be a movie about friendship - and that the bonds of that relationship have nothing to do with the circumstances from which they are born. I'm somewhat sceptical about that. If you just wanted to make a movie about friendship, it could be about nuns. Or puppies. Or just about anything. But Baise-moi (which translates as Shag Me, not F**k Me) serves to highlight very clearly the moral hypocrisy that surrounds cinema, and has done ever since the days of the Hayes Code. The irony here lies in the fact that it is the explicit sex that caused the film to be banned in so many territories. No one has a problem with the violence. Sure, the violence might be simulated, and the sex isn't - but they both occupy the same space on the screen. And while it's legal to have sex in the privacy of your home, the violence depicted could never be legal. After all, you can see worse violence in Freddy vs. Jason, and more explicit sex on any porn video you might choose, so what is it about the combination that riles people so? I'll concede that the film is flawed, and demonstrates the debutant directors lack of experience, but for the challenge it sets to our jaded set of morals in the west, it should be applauded.

I've seen "Baise-Moi" on DVD several weeks ago. The movie made also a short run in Adult Theaters here in México City as "Viólame!" but I don't think it scored high. I enjoy a "pretty strong stomach" and, with the years passing by, I became more open-minded and tolerant (thank God something good comes also with the aging process...). The movie contains a graphic rape sequence, a few more explicit sex scenes and "tons" of gore and violence, without being able to deliver a message. Perhaps it was supposed to be just a provocative movie but, the violence in particular, remains almost unexplained and gratuitous and, therefore, it can only be considered pure exploitation. Graphic depiction of violence and sex in movies absolutely don't offend me (on the contrary, if well done and essential to the plot, I surely like it), but I wasn't very impressed by this one. I mostly agreed with the comment posted on IMDb so, I didn't feel any interests in posting another comment, since there was not much else I could say. However, last week, I heard on the radio, while listening to a variety program which deals with music and movies, that on January 28th, Karen Lancaume aka Karen Bach, "Nadine", one of the two main characters of this movie, took her own life at age 31. A suicide news note is always a sad note but the suicide of a person who has gained certain notoriety, usually (and unfortunately) stirs-up a process of exploitation based on bad publicity and I wouldn't be surprised at all, if the movie would make another run in theaters and the sales of the DVD would benefit of an important boost. How sad! Poor "exploited" Karen; she surely was a pretty lady and perhaps even a fine person but, at age 31, in spite of being still a young woman, she already passed "prime-time" which for an "Adult Movie Star" (that's what she was whit 28 porn-vids and one main-stream movie, also classified as porn, in her résumé), is just about around that age. The porn industry system is allegedly very cruel and burns-up those girls, who decide to go for it, very quickly. The competition of new young "hungry" starlets perhaps became unbeatable and unbearable for her or else... We shall never know why she did it; we can only guess she was profoundly unhappy and severely depressed. I wish (and I hope I'm not the only one), she has now finally found the peace and happiness she couldn't find in life. Karen: "REQUIESCAT IN PACEM"!

Take excessive violence, add a some hardcore porn scenes and French alternative rock music and what you´ve got is a hip and provoking movie, a shocking and disturbing portrait of generation X... STOP - because this formula doesn´t work always!!! "Baise moi!" ("Fuck me!") wants to be a piece of modern art, but it´s only a little stupid flick with a nearly nonexisting plot, surface characters and nutty dialogues! The film is shot with a hand-held camera and the amateur illumination and the shady set decoration convey you every time that feeling to be in a real porn movie. The special scenes including close-ups of sexual practices were just added to break another taboo, but they make this film looking more and more cheap, scruffy and repulsive. Serious provocations make you think about possible deplorable states of affairs, but "Baise moi!" is only pure showmanship without any message! Nevertheless this movie is very boring: the scanty 75 minutes (German version) seemed to last for an eternity... (1/10)