Baise-moi is a 2000 French erotic crime thriller film written and directed by Virginie Despentes and Coralie Trinh Thi and starring Karen Lancaume and Raffaëla Anderson.
Nadine is a part-time sex worker, and Manu a slacker who does anything—including occasional porn film acting—to get by in her small town in southern France.
During their spree, the duo's crimes are reported by the press, and become a point of fascination for the entire country, with some people actually supporting them, and others afraid of them.
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'."
The film, co-directed by Coralie Trinh Thi who had previously worked as a pornographic actress,[5] included several unsimulated sex scenes.
Time magazine bucked the trend by saying: "Virginie Despentes and Coralie Trinh Thi's festival sensation is stark, serious and original.
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."
The rating caused outrage, particularly amongst members of the right-wing Promouvoir religious group, which is strongly associated with the Mouvement National Républicain.
Minister for Culture Catherine Tasca ended the debate by re-introducing an 18 certificate without the X classification, allowing the film to be re-released in mainstream theatres.
In Australia, the film was initially passed for viewing at the highest possible R18 rating in a 6–5 vote by the country's Classification Board in October 2001.
[9][10] It received an R18 rating in cinemas in New Zealand, and was banned from video release there, following an injunction filed by the Society for the Promotion of Community Standards.
[12] In Quebec, the film was considered to be a moderate success for an independent release, taking in approximately $250,000 CAD in the first two months of its run.
It did, however, provoke a violent reaction from one Montreal moviegoer, who broke into the projection booth and stole the print, ending the screening.
[14] After a further cut of a two-second scene showing a gun being pressed into a man's anus before being fired, the film received an 18 certificate on video in 2002 .
[15] Even with these cuts, the film represents a watershed in what content is allowed at the 18 rating—films with the R18 higher rating can only be sold in licensed sex shops.
London Underground banned the display of the film's advertising poster because of fears that its title would offend French-speakers using its network.
[16] In the United States, the film was marketed under the names Kiss Me and Rape Me and released without a classification from the Motion Picture Association of America.