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Baise-moi (2000)
Sex, Drugs and deconstructive feminism
I agree with most reviews which can be read here. Virginie Despentes film "Baise Moi" is not a good movie when it comes to filmmaking. (Besides, its soundtrack is not quite fitting in comparism to the late-ninties punk baseline of the book.)
Nevertheless there are a few moments in which you can sense the intention of the novel behind it. Which is in my opinion worth reading. In her work Despentes tries to radically interchange heteronormative orders of men and women and furthermore reveals an insuperable neoliberal economic system from which its subjects, especially female-read characters, can not, in any way, break out. Regardless of how hard, violently or vulgarly they try to turn the tables or disguise in a carnivalesque manner.
But the film is too short and simply broken down to violence and explicit (!) pornography. A spectator without background knowledge of Despentes novels or her way of writing (and talking) about feminist issues could easily be overwhelmed and offended by this obscure piece of french trash cinema.
If you are still interested in the work of Virginie Despentes read "Baise Moi" and maybe some passages of her essay anthology "King Kong Theory". Not quite easy to consume but readable as a deconstructive attempt to make structures of both social and economic exploitation (of women) visible. With punk music, sex, hardcore porn, drugs and violence!
Fette Welt (1998)
Not comparable with the book
As said in other reviews the film is watchable without knowing the book behind it also due to the performance of Jürgen Vogel.
However in Helmut Kraussers book "Fette Welt" Hagen is a deeply pessimistic, cynical but yet intelligent and highly sophisticated character. Despite all of his flaws. The film can't really express these complexity not to mention the complicated connection between Judith and the protagonist, his dark childhood or, without spoiling, the revelation of Herodes at the end.
Furthermore it isn't able to transform the sober poetics and slightly philosophical passages of the book into picture or to deliver the special aesthetics towards dirt and decay described sensitively in the text.
The question is, if this is possible at all. During a few scenes the movie at least tried.