Baise-Moi: from a political to a social female friendship film

Abstract

This study is devoted to an aspect in the film, Baise-Moi, largely overlooked by critics, i.e. the friendship between two women. When Baise-Moi, directed by Virginie Despentes and Coralie Trinh Thi, was released in France in June 2000, it was at the centre of a heated debate regarding its explicit scenes of violence and sex and was consequently banned from French and international cinema theatres. Examining exclusively the relationship between the two main female protagonists—Nadine and Manu—this article will attempt to highlight the link between feminist ideas and the issue of female friendship in contemporary French cinema. It will therefore be a matter of bringing forward the film's political position on the situation of women in contemporary France. However, a detailed study of the representation of the feminist issue of female friendship in the film and its impact on female viewers will lead to questions about its real significance in Baise-Moi. Indeed, the film ends on a deceiving note for its female protagonists, prompting a reconsideration of aspects of the film, which will finally result in a revelation of its social and hence recuperative undertones.