WARNING: THIS FRENCH ART HOUSE FILM CONTAINS
EXTREME GRAPHIC VIOLENCE AND SEX. THIS FILM
UNDOUBTEDLY WOULD HAVE RECEIVED AN NC-17 OR X
RATING FROM THE MPAA. ONLY THOSE WHO ARE
FAMILIAR WITH A VERY EUROPEAN STYLE OF
FILMMAKING (Pola X, Romance, etc), AND ARE
COMPLETELY COMFORTABLE WITH ALL FORMS OF ART,
SHOULD WATCH THIS FILM.
Roger Ebert said of this film..."It
alternates between graphic, explicit sex scenes
and murder scenes of brutal cruelty. You recoil
from what's on the screen. Later, you ask what
the filmmakers had in mind. They are French, and
so we know some kind of ideology and
rationalization must lurk beneath the blood and
semen."
Two girls, a rape victim and a prostitute, both
sick of their lives, rampage through the French
countryside killing virtually everyone they see.
They feed their sex drive regularly and then
kill those men too. They form a strange bond and
aimlessly head for a day when it will all end.
You might love it if you liked "Natural Born
Killers", "Thelma & Louise", "American Psycho",
"Romance".
Amazingly this film was directed by a woman.
Maybe only a woman could have directed this... a
male director would have been labeled an
exploitative pig. Even die hard art-house movie
goers will be quite shocked by this vicious
film. I am not sure what the point was...
perhaps it was a way of reversing the tide by
placing two women at the head of a bloody and
sexual killing spree, a position typically
portrayed in films by men. Maybe this was just
an experiment in filmmaking... how far can one
go without being labeled as pornography? I am
not sure what the point was. But I could not
help but be emotionally jolted by the anger
spewed on to the screen... it was real anger!
The actresses, although typically adult film
stars, were actually quite terrifying and
powerful as the rampant 'Bonnie & Bonnie'. This
film has a strange raw power... and for that I
give it some praise. But because it was so
unclear as to what that power was intended
for... I must give it the in-between rating of
'C'. BE WARNED THOUGH... 98% of all viewers, and
there won't be many of you, will absolutely hate
this film and may not make it through the
relatively short 77 minute running time.
"Baise Moi" is a combination of 'Natural Born
Killers,' 'Thelma & Louise' and 'low budget
porn'. This film will make most people gag with
shock.
©
Written by TC Candler
Richard
Propes' Comment
I believe it
is, perhaps, the film's short running time that
makes it a tad tolerable for me. It is well
known that I am a rather serious pacifist, yet I
do consciously make an effort to not allow that
to impact my critical evaluation of a film. In
this film, violence is so much at the essence of
the film that it is difficult to say it doesn't
belong here. I agree with TC that 98% of all
viewers will hate this film, but I suppose I can
say with a reasonably straight face that it does
accomplish a bit of what I see it trying to do.
Jacob
Hall's Comment
N/A
