BAISE-MOI A film review by David N. Butterworth Copyright 2001 David N. Butterworth
**1/2 (out of ****)
Anyone who's constantly frustrated by the simulated sex scenes in mainstream movies (wondering why, as adults, we're not permitted to see more explicit sexual activity in R-rated and, frankly, NC-17 rated films) should check out the controversial French film "Baise-Moi" (or "Rape Me," to give the film one of its less literal/more printable translations). One look and it'll be obvious why. *That's* why they don't do it, you'll quickly come to realize.
"Baise-Moi" is unique in so much as it's a mainstream film peppered with hardcore (i.e., non-simulated) sex scenes and (hopefully) simulated scenes of extreme violence. Well, mainstream in as much as you'll have to seek it out at the artiest of the art theaters in town (in Philadelphia that's the Roxy and only the Roxy and don't count on it playing there for long).
It's an interesting but extremely unnerving film, unnerving in the sense that at times it feels like you're watching a pornographic movie with a plot thrown in to move the "action" along, rather than a "Thelma and Louise"-inspired killing spree with occasional time-outs for graphic sex.
The sex here is not only jarring in its explicitness but, if you'll pardon the expression, it sticks out like a sore thumb. It's not titillating (because it's too distracting, in an oddly anachronistic way), and it doesn't have much of a chance to be sexy, because the ultraviolence soon comes down like a ton of bricks.
The violence itself (aimed at both women and men, so don't go into this thinking it's some feminist anthem) is pretty nasty, so much so that you actually crave the sex scenes just to have something else to look at (until they arrive that is, orchestrated to a thumpa-thumpa rock beat, and then you're all distracted and non-titillated again). It's a circle ... and a very vicious one at that.
Based (or maybe I should say "baised") on Virginie Despentes' "brutal, savage novel," the film follows the explosive exploits of two women, Nadine and Manu who, tired of being brutalized by society, go on a murderous rampage. And that's pretty much it. Despentes' wound up co-directing the film with French adult film actress Coralie Trinh Thi after the process of casting the two leads dragged on forever (Karen Bach and Raffaela Anderson--porn stars themselves--finally got the parts). Both actresses are comfortable on camera and create complex (if volatile) characters--not something one might expect from their day jobs, necessarily. And the filmmakers, who share "a cutting edge sense of provocation," pull everything together tightly and skillfully, as if they've done all this before (they haven't).
But the repetitious nature of the film drags it down: kiss kill, kiss kill, for 80 long minutes. You just sit there, waiting for the bodily fluids to flow. Shock me now, shock me later. But yes I was shocked, a little. And I was disturbed, a little. Because I haven't seen anything quite like this *in context* before (and that's the key to the whole "Baise-Moi" experience).
It's unlikely that the film will loosen any standards of what is and isn't considered acceptable in terms of sexual explicitness in the megaplexes. If anything it'll further convince many to keep this stuff *out* of the mainstream altogether (although Harvey Keitel is still probably pretty safe). "Baise-Moi" is most likely a one-off and in a lot of respects it's probably best that way.
-- David N. Butterworth dnb@dca.net
Got beef? Visit "La Movie Boeuf" online at http://members.dca.net/dnb
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