by Tori Potenza, Staff Writer

Content Warnings: Rape, Abuse 

A few years back I began watching more rape revenge films. This is a controversial subgenre that I felt I, personally, wanted to explore more in an attempt to learn what about the subgenre worked for me, and what did not. Baise-Moi was a film I always heard about in reference to the subgenre, specifically because of how controversial and extreme the film was advertised to be. In Rape-Revenge Films: A Critical Study by Alexandra Heller-Nicholas, she gives a clear picture of how extreme the film was. It drew my attention, especially considering that it was part of the New French Extremities wave of films and was directed by two women, Virginie Despentes (who wrote the book in which it was based) and Coralie Trinh Thi. Women-directed rape-revenge is especially rare and I knew I needed to find it. It was a challenge to track down, but when I attended Brooklyn Horror Fest in October, it was included in their New French Extremity repertory screenings. Baise-Moi played on my last day there and while it was clear this film was not for everyone, I loved this story about a violent odyssey of two severely damaged women; Nadine (Karen Lancaume) and Manu (Raffaëla Anderson).

 In Baise-Moi (which translates to “fuck me”) we follow two women, Manu and Nadine, as they discover their love of destruction and murder, then each other. Manu has no prospects of getting out of her small town; she spends most of her time hanging out with her drug-addicted friend and doing porn shoots when she is in need of money. Nadine is an apathetic sex worker who spends most of her time masturbating and openly watching porn much to the chagrin of her roommate. They both commit a murder around the same time and try to get out of town. As luck would have it, they bump into each other and feel a kinship that leads them down a destructive path. The pair spend their days flirting, fucking, robbing strangers for money, and murdering those who get in their way. As their crimes escalate and attention is drawn on them, it is clear that their stories will end in either death or prison. 

Baise-Moi gives us too dejected murderesses that kill for different but similar motives. While their stories intersect after their first murder, they come to their thirst for blood lust in different ways. Nadine seems to begin her murderspree simply out of frustration for those around her. She lives a life that is completely reliant on vices; whether it be sex, drugs, or alcohol. Her roommate cannot stand living with Nadine considering how little she cares about anything that is not related to her own pleasure. After a particularly heated blow out with her roommate she strangles her, takes their rent money and leaves. Manu commits her first murder after she is assaulted. While looking for drugs with her friend, a group of men grab them and rape the two women. her friend fights, cries and screams throughout the attack to no avail. On the other hand Manu refuses to give them any such satisfaction. She stares them down, looking completely dead inside. This detachment makes the attackers uninterested in her and they ultimately give up in their attack. When she returns home her brother notices the bruises and asks where they came from. She respondes, saying “They're from fucking dickheads like you! They always have to hit someone in order to feel alive.” When he then insinuates that she enjoyed being assaulted and in response she kills him. 

They are both fed up with their situations in life. They simply want to do what they want, even if those are things that are unstable or considered problematic by the society at large. Who wouldn’t want to find a way to have endless cash in order to do whatever you feel like all the time? No work and all play is exactly what these two hope for and anyone who appears as even the slightest annoyance or barrier to their desires will likely die by their hands. These two are soulmates in the purest sense of the word, which adds a level of romance to an overall bleak story. At the exact moment that these two commit their first murder and find a need to run from home they meet as if fated by the gods. They simply walk by each other at the train station and they immediately recognize something in each other, like love at first sight. It seems that they are the only two people in the world who understand what they want and they decide to be there for eachother until the bloody end. They do not bat an eye when other friends and family die around them but they need each other. The film is even edited in such a way that it feels like these women are working in sync with each other even before they meet. As fucked up as they are, they find their murder soulmate, the person they do not have to explain anything to. They are simply understood, and what human doesn’t crave that uncommunicated understanding. 

The two are portrayed in various ways through the eyes of those they interact with. Nadine is portrayed as cold and uninterested in those around her. Her sexual gratification is the only thing that seems to excite her. Her roommate sees her as selfish and disgusting in the way she decides to live her life. Manu is also looked at in a cold light after she and her friend are assaulted by a group of men her friend is unable to understand why Manu did not fight back or resist her attackers. In response she says that you  "can't prevent anyone from penetrating her pussy, so I didn't leave anything precious in there.” She recognizes that she is looked at like a piece of meat, nothing more than an object for sex so she detaches herself in order to preserve herself from the pain that is caused. While her friend thinks this makes her look cold, her brother looks at her like she was asking for it. 

When Manu and Nadine come together, they are looked at as a unit. They have truly become one entity who act in tandem with each other. They wield their sexuality as a weapon so those around them typically look at them as sexual objects or “crazy bitches” depending on who they are with. For some it works in their favor, two men they take to their hotel room enjoy a night of sex with both of the women, while on the other hand a man who is not able to get hard for them gets a lap full of puke and death. As they get further along in their journey they are even looked upon as saviors, as if they are becoming mythologized through their crime spree. When they are pulled over at a random police check along with another girl they murder the police. Their new friend lets them hide out at her house and they hang out together while planning their next move. While there they decide to help their friend's brother deal with a rich architect who has caused him problems. Happy enough to kill anyone they are pointed to, they offer to go to the architect’s home and kill him. These acts add to the support that they gain through their crimes. 

From robbing and shooting people for money, to shooting up a sex club full of patrons just for fun, the two follow any whim that suits their fancy. Ultimately one of these conflicts kills Manu. Manu’s death is one of the only moments throughout the film that Nadine shows genuine human emotion. Her other half is gone and she is unable to cope. She attempts to give Manu a proper send off, attempting to burn her body in a funeral pyre. And before she can kill herself and join Manu the police catch her, trapping her in a worse fate than death. But we can see how their legacy might live on. The idea of women committing such heinous crimes is repulsive to many but their fight against the status quo and disdain for societal norms is clearly a point that resonates, even if they could never follow in their footsteps. These two souls found each other, and as opposed to living a life of uninteresting expectations, they find it more beautiful to burn brightly and shortly. They live to the extreme and defy the expectations of women. They are women that do not fear the dark because they are the actual monsters lurking there.