BAISE-MOI aka FUCK ME aka RAPE ME
Year: 2000
USA: Remstar Distribution
UK: Samurai Film & Television
Cast: Raffaëla Anderson, Karen Bach (aka Karen Lancaume), Delphine McCarty, Lisa Marshall, Estelle Isaac, Herve P Gustave, Marc Rioufol, Ouassini Embarek, Adama Niane, Christophe Claudy, Patrick Eudeline, Hacene Beddrouh, Philippe Houillez, Steven Jhonsson, Ian Scott, Gil Stuart, Karim Sabaddehine, Titof, Marc Barrow, Rodolphe Amtrim, Jean-Marc Mineo, Gabor Rassov, Elodie Cherie, Tewfik Saad, Celine Beugnot, Patrick-Kodjo Topou, Simon Nahoum, Jean-Louis Costes
Directors: Virginie Despentes, Coralie Trinh Thi
Country: France
Language: French (English dubbed version available)
USA: 77 mins
UK: 76 mins
UK Certificate: 18 contains strong sex and violence, and coarse language
To obtain this category cuts of 10 seconds were required. The cuts were Compulsory. A cut was required to an explicit close-up shot of a penis penetrating a vagina during a violent rape sequence, in accordance with BBFC guidelines on sexual violence which state that portrayals which eroticise sexual assault may be cut at any classification level.
USA Release Date: 6 July 2001 (Limited Release - New York)
USA Release Date: 1 June 2001 (Limited Release - Los Angeles)
UK Release Date: 3 May 2002
Synopsis
BAISE-MOI is a highly controversial movie based on the equally controversial novel by Virginie Despentes, who is also co-director of the film. The two main stars are Raffaela Anderson and Karen Bach, who are in fact real-life porn stars.
Manu (Raffaela Anderson) and Nadine (Karen Bach) lose their last tenuous relationship with mainstream society when Manu gets raped and Nadine sees her only friend being shot. After a chance encounter, they embark on an explosive journey of sex and murder. Perhaps as a revenge against men, perhaps as a revolt against bourgeois society, but certainly in a negation - almost joyful in its senseless violence - of all the codes of a society which has excluded, raped and humiliated them. Controversial for its violence and real sex scenes: a vividly nihilist road movie set in France.
Co-directors Virginie Despentes, a former prostitute and Coralie Trinh Thi, a former porn actress, purposely shot real hard core sex scenes using porn actresses to create a shocking yet compelling film that not only pushes the boundaries of conventional cinema but also changes the views of female sexuality.
It is also worth noting that BAISE-MOI has even caused controversy in it's normally sexually liberated French homeland. The UK, which has recently slightly relaxed its strict censorship rules, has passed it through the BBFC (British Board of Film Classification) with only a short cut to a scene of penetration during the rape sequence.
