The cover of the UK edition of the film shows that the film used its notoriety as a marketing ploy

Baise-moi is a book first published in 1999 and authored by Virginie Despentes. A film based on the book, and with the same name, was released the following year. The film, directed by Despentes and actress Coralie Trinh Thi, received intense media coverage because its graphic mix of real rather than simulated sex and violence was on the limit of that allowed by censors in various countries around the world.

Plot

Baise-moi (literally translated as "Fuck Me", though "Rape Me" better typifies the intended meaning) tells the story of Nadine (played by Karen Lancaume) and Manu (Raffa la Anderson) who go on a violent spree against a society they feel marginalized by. Nadine is a part-time prostitute. She watches as her only friend, a drug addict, is shot in the head for reasons unknown. Full of rage, Nadine returns home and kills her roommate. Manu is a porn actress. She and her friend are brutally gang-raped. Whilst her friend struggles and screams in terror, Manu lies still with a detached look, angering the rapists. Manu returns home and tells her boyfriend of her ordeal. The boyfriend reacts by vowing to find and take revenge upon the rapists rather than asking about Manu's well-being. As their discussion turns into a slanging match, Manu kills him.

Later that night, Manu and Nadine both attempt to take the last train from an otherwise deserted station. They miss the train but begin talking to one another. They realise they share common feelings of anger and together begin go on a violent road trip characterized by the pattern of meeting a man, having sex with him and then killing him. In need of money, they also hold up a convenience store and kill a woman at an ATM. Critics have pointed to these scenes to suggest the film is not a purely feminist endeavour.

Finally the two women enter a swinger's bar and kill many of the couples there. The pair discuss what they have done, and agree that it has all been pointless because nothing has changed inside them.

Making the film

The movie was filmed on location between October and December 1999 in Biarritz, Bordeaux, Lyon and Marseille. The movie was shot on digital video without artificial lighting. This low budget method of filming divided critics - some said it gave the film an amateurish look. Lou Lumenick, reviewing the film in the New York Post, went further and said it "looked like hell". Others, such as James Travers writing for filmsdefrance.com, said the filming method added something to the film. Travers wrote "the film's 'rough and ready' feel helps to strengthen its artistic vision and draws out the messages which it is trying to get across, without distracting its audience with overly choreographed 'shock scenes'."

Release

The movie was co-directed by an actress whose previous work was in unambigiously pornographic movies and the two lead roles were also played by former porn actresses. Perhaps in part due to this, the movie was criticised as thinly veiled pornography by many members of the media. Le Monde, for instance, called it a "sick film". Time magazine bucked the trend by saying "Virginie Despentes and Coralie Trinh Thi's festival sensation is stark, serious and original. And as one of the amoral avengers, Raffaela Anderson has true star quality - part seraph, all slut." The co-directors rejected the pornography charge - Trinh Thi said in an interview with the Sunday Times that "This movie is not for masturbation, [thus it] is not porn." Despentes concurred, saying their film "was not erotic."

In its home country, France, the movie was initially released with a 16 rating. The rating caused outrage, particularly amongst members of the right-wing Promouvoir religious group. Under political pressure, the Conseil d'Etat removed the film's commercial licence three days after release – effectively banning it. As the film was the first to be banned in France for 28 years, the film became something a cause celebre – with one anti-censorship campaigner calling the ban "totalitarian state censorship". The Conseil later re-classified the film with an X certificate, a category usually reserved for mainstream pornographic movies. The French minister for culture, Catherine Tasca, pacified the debate by re-introducing an 18 certificate. The film was then re-released with this newly restored certificate.

In Australia, the movie was initially passed for viewing at the highest possible R18 rating in a 6-5 vote by the country's Classification Board. However the Attorney-General invoked his powers under the 1995 Classification Act to have the board's decision reviewed. The Classification Review Board (a separate entity to the Classification Board) ruled that the film could only have an RC (banned from release) rating and the film was pulled from cinemas. It was later revealed that 50,000 people had seen the film prior to banning but according to Des Clark, director of the Office of Film and Literature Classification, just "one or two" of those had complained about the film. Most complainants, he explained, had not seen the film.

A publicity shot from the movie's distributors highlights the themes of sex and violence

In Canada, the film was banned in Ontario, initially because it was deemed too pornographic. The producers asked for it to be re-rated with a pornographic rating, only for it be banned because there was too much violence for a porngraphic film. A second review passed them with an 18A licence.

In the United Kingdom, the film was released with an 18 certificate for cinema release after ten seconds of cuts. The cut was to a scene that showed a close-up shot of a penis entering a vagina during a rape scene that the Board ruled was eroticising sexual assault. The film received an 18 certificate on video after a further two seconds of cuts to a scene showing a gun being pressed into a man's anus prior to being fired (in another shot). Nevertheless, the film represents a watershed in what content is allowed at the 18 rating (films with the higher rating, R18, can only be sold in licensed sex shops). The film was one of the very first to show an erect penis, and the first to combine it with scenes of violence. London Underground banned the display of the film's advertising poster because of fears that its title would offend French-speakers using its network.

In the United States, the film was marketed under the names Kiss Me and Rape Me and released without a classification from the MPAA. It screened only at a small number of cinemas (almost all of them in arthouse cinemas in the major cities) The film took just $70,000 in receipts from its American release and there was marked lack of controversy compared with other countries.

In New Zealand the film received an R18 rating in the cinema, and was banned from video release.

The film was banned completely in Ireland.

Two minutes and 35 seconds of cuts were required before the film received a certificate in Hong Kong.

External links

• Official homepage for the UK release of the film (http://www.baise-moi.co.uk/)

• The banning of Baise-Moi in Australia (http://danny.oz.au/freedom/oflc/films/BaiseMoi.html)
• BBFC page detailing cuts required to the film in the United Kingdom (http://www.bbfc.co.uk/website/Classified.nsf/ClassifiedWorks/8E0BF2F09CD362E8802569FF004EE71D?OpenDocument)
• A extended review of the film, and the controversy surrounding it, from The Observer (http://observer.guardian.co.uk/life/story/0,6903,683906,00.html)
• IMDB page on Baise-moi (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0249380/)

References

• Baise-moi (English language edition) Virginie Despentes, translated by Bruce Benderson, Grove Press, ISBN 0802138705
• Baise-moi (French language edition) Virginie Despentes, ISBN 229030879X