Watch Baise-moi For Free

Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

The Age of Commercialism

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

Watching it is like watching the spectacle of a class clown at their best: you laugh at their jokes, instigate their defiance, and "ooooh" when they get in trouble.

If you are a fan of 'extreme' cinema, especially of the French variety, chances are you've already heard of or seen 'Baise Moi', and if you're not, then it probably won't be too high on your list of films to see, if it is at all. Hopefully you know what to expect at least!BM is somewhat like 'Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer', but with a pair of seemingly psychologically 'normal' women, who one day lose it and commit murder on impulse, happen to bump into one another before going postal for a few days before it all unravels tragically at the end.What BM offers that most 'extreme' films don't, is a large proportion of the cast and directors being from the pornographic industry, and of course, actual unsimulated sex scenes. That and the the fact that women are ones committing reckless acts of murder, often in brutal and creative ways, with the sex and the violence interspersed evenly and casually throughout, does serve to earn the film its controversial reputation.A common criticism is the loose storytelling, and yes, the first few scenes are unusual, and very random, snippets of street/bar scenes, conversations, yet all tinged with a sense of menace. Tension between man and woman is palpable from early on, before any of the characters are properly introduced.The first lead is Nadine, a lady of the night, played by the stunning (and sadly departed) Karen Lancaume, demure and polite in public, super casual at home, where she constantly fends off her bickering housemate. The second is Manu (Rafaella Anderson), younger and gutsier, and actually more believable as a killer or a criminal than Nadine.The manner of their meeting and subsequent bonding is somewhat rushed and artificial. Probably not what the directors wanted to focus on, in preference for getting to the action as soon as possible.The violence will satisfy most extremophiles, it is more of the gritty and realistic variety than the cartoonish gore Kill Bill variety. However, I never truly bought Nadine as a sadistic killer the way I did with Manu. Manu just seems like a dangerous street kid capable of anything, with Nadine it feels she is more just coming along for the ride, and is too jaded about life to care or take much pleasure in the brutality. Her speaking and mannerisms are too sedate and measured, even aloof; I am thinking her first mainstream role should not have been as radical as this. BM finishes with Manu killed, and Nadine forced to deal with her loss, whom she mourns as she would a sister (after only having met her a few days prior). So, not even after so much carnage does she lose her ability to feel, or love, she is finally presented as a tragic character, not a monster. And perhaps, after being used to seeing psychopaths commit these acts on our screens, Nadine's 'human' story adds to BM being so hard to stomach for the censors, given the monstrous acts she previously committed.I know of no other film as violent with frequent unsimulated sex scenes, especially not ones where the murderers and participants in said sex scenes are one and the same! Given that the film is now 13 years old, in the world of extreme, that has to count for something!

Two women end up as serial killers in a raw uncut version of thelma and louise.The acting is amazing and you can connect to the characters and still feel empathy even though they are horrendous killers.It shows the vulnerability of women in society and the supremacy of men and how they take advantage of women.This is however flipped on to it's head in this film.It's really refreshing seeing the male in a vulnerable position physically,sexually and emotionally.I suspect the reason this has partly got such a low rating is because most men couldn't handle the contents of the film i.e 2 powerful women taking control of the male.It also shows men in a sexually pornographic vulnerable position.Another reason why a lot of men would feel uncomfortable with this film.Well done to the directors for being so raw with a well written and well acted film.It's really not for the faint hearted as some of the scenes are extremely graphic.

I finally sat down to watch this movie. I was expecting just a mess of a film. However, I was greatly surprised by it. It is definitely not for everyone. It relies on Abel Ferrera for its story, no doubt. What struck me was the gritty portrayal of a France that is usually unseen (albeit a fictionalized one) in French cinema. It is not the lighthearted "Amelie" or others of the ilk. No one is really likable. French society is not ideal. The two leads are not professional (except in the porn business), and their acting shows that, but their characters are not supposed to have any more depth than they do. Many of the victims are sleazy, and I, as a viewer, do not know whether to root for the antiheroes or not. That is the directors' strength in the movie, and precisely their point. These women are empowered feminists (as is one of the directors) and show their anger at not only men, but the industry that creates a male-dominated and desexualizes women in a male-oriented way. Just look at how the female victim at the ATM looks! Look at how the women at the sex club are "enjoying" themselves! Look at how the men "force" the women into pleasing them or how they attempt to control them from doing what they want to do to feel pleasure (whether it is sexual or, in the case of the protagonists, killing). This movie is a critique on society. The two women had enough and, like Michael Douglas in "Falling Down," go on a cross-country killing spree just for a release from reality and to control it at the same time. There are many hardcore sex acts, and the film is not in the same vein as "Cafe Flesh," but, like that film, it swerves from sex acts to a "normal" storyline. Again, NOT for everyone, so don't go out and rush to rent. I wish it were a bit better with acting and film stock, but it's hardly worth the 4.4 that IMDb shows it having! I give it 7 of 10. E.

Everyone who defends this (needlessly) controversial film likes to say that it's absolutely, definitely not porn. They say this because "the film is not meant for masturbation" or some other legally defining excuse. Even the filmmakers have cried out, "This is not porn!" in their own defense.But the thing is… this movie is totally porn. It gleefully fetishisizes violence, rape, drug use, lesbianism, domestic abuse, sodomy, robbery, gambling, blow jobs, punk-music, revenge, menstruation, patriarchal oppression, suicide and your good old fashioned non-simulated sex. Most of the time the script feels like it's just ticking off boxes on some all inclusive list of kinks. And it's all done for the money shot, baby… every time. You know why it's porn? It's porn because it shows all of those things in detailed close ups… but it has nothing to say about any of them.Directed in a classic DIY style and squarely falling into the "New French Extremism" movement, it was made by two-women. One a former punk turned massage-parlour hostess and the other an ex-porn star. It features two other female porn actresses mass-murdering and fornicating (imdb won't let me use the word I want to use) across France, all in "trash" aesthetic video and shot in available light. It's a female power fantasy. An act of sexual reclamation that reverses the conversation on gender violence and it's created by actual sex-workers. So that, in and of itself, is interesting… the actual film, however, is tedious and artificial.At times the movie does seem to show a passing interest in addressing genuine gender-war rage, but that's all thoroughly lost in its own appetite for shock imagery and its desperate need to be offensive. I've read interviews where the filmmakers claim the movie speaks to all kinds of social injustices, from class separation to racism, and I suppose those ingredients are there in the mix, but in the end this movie is really only concerned with being more pornography in a porn saturated world.Although the fact that the movie has been banned in several countries, including France, suggests that it's just the sort of artistic exercise society needs. Sadly. So there's that.If you're into camp, actual on camera sex (Raffaela Anderson is pretty hot) and you don't mind a very intense rape scene (why is the sex so real and the violence so cartoonish in this movie?), I guess it's a pretty intriguing thing to watch.