The Bloodettes (2005)

From http://superselected.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Les_Saignantes.jpg

Director: Jean-Pierre Bekolo

Screenplay: Jean-Pierre Bekolo

Cast: Majolie as Adèle Ado); Chouchou (Dorylia Calmel); Emile Abossolo M'bo as Ministre d'Etat;  Josephine Ndagnou as Natou; Essindi Mindja as Essomba; Alain Dzukam Simo as Rokko Véronique Mendouga as Dr. Amanga

Synopsis: In an unknown African state in 2025, a Bloodette named Majolie (Adèle Ado) accidentally kills the Secretary General of the Civil Cabinet, a very important man in the government, after sex. Getting the assistance of another Bloodette and close friend Chouchou (Dorylia Calmel) to dispose the body, they find themselves pulled into the local custom of funeral mornings for important figures, which immediately causes problems with their attempts to dispose the SGCC, particularly as a corrupt male political figure in the government becomes aware of the pair and tries to sexually blackmail them in exchange for money. The women however have one advantage on their side, the ancient ritual of the Mevoungou, presided over by older sorceresses and their own abilities.

The Bloodettes, even if it isn't perfect, presents an ambitious idea of a Film Noir soaked political sci-fi film made in Cameroon. Shot on the streets rather than attempting an elaborate fantasy world, the film's minimal nature is for the better and for a sense of mood. Director Jean-Pierre Bekolo explicitly presents an African country of 2015, not dissimilar to 2005 Cameroon or  to most places within the 2010s. Barring the voice automation to drive cars and little details, post-colonial Africa is still stuck in a terrible scenario, corrupted by politics and industry regardless of the era. Whilst old depictions of the future, even the campiest, can be as rewarding Bekolo's intent for the film is greatly helped by shooting in real locations. That amongst the murky back streets and industrial areas, it's an environment which suits the sense that his lead heroines have to scrape to survive.

Patriarchy is still a huge issue within this world that is very bleak and inhospitable. The Bloodettes, Majolie and Chouchou, have the advantage of an ancient magical rite. Yes, said rite to a Western viewer can literally be described as a woman's own sex being magical. This ritual, the Mevoungou, is however a real custom that was eroded away by Western influences and the director discovered through anthropological documentation of his own Beti heritage. One of the biggest problems  so what may seem strange and trite for a Western viewer is actually a very political and feminist subject being brought to screen.

There is, without any of this context, a slight absurdity at first to the Bloodettes using their sexuality to force stun people a couple of times, through synchronous dancing and gyration. But that not only reveals a  conscious bias and shame in a viewer (even myself honestly) when talking of sexuality, but knowing that it's based on a real culture of female empowerment, lost in the wave of Western influence and practices like female genital circumcision, forces one to step out of this childish viewpoint. To realise how sex magic (magick) alongside ancient traditions like Mevoungou come from the state of reassessing the human sexual body as a force of great power. Its more significant as this is an African custom, not a Western one, and alongside the huge stumbling blocks in Western culture itself with sexuality, there's also the huge issue of how the West ostracises "exotic" customs behind our history of material social progression by showing it as another even within that culture's own history, forgetting that we're viewing a lot of this never actually within these countries. In this film's case as well, this is a topic with racial and engendered politics which means not knowing the context of the Mevoungou, which I only learnt of through writing this, places a viewer in danger of entirely dismissing a film as merely a cultural oddity when it's a cultural film in its own country with a very loaded context.

Two very strong women are our leads. Whilst they are likely in sex work, they are very strong figures looking out for themselves. Barring one shower scene, very little in terms of sexualisation of a male gaze is found, instead the sensuality of the protagonists theirs and in their control, both of their own bodies in front of others and the Mevoungou. Everything else is entirely about these figures trying to overcome corrupt male figures. Sometimes with their whits about them, like trying to convince a butcher that the  SGCC's body is good beef, eventually trying to acquire a body for the head when they find themselves in the midst of funeral morning customs. Then however they have the Mevoungou. An essay Re-Imagining West African Women’s Sexuality: Jean Pierre Bekolo’s Les Saignantes and the Mevoungou by Naminata Diabate describes that, yes, the Mevoungou is literally a Beti custom surrounding the female clitoris. That it has a profound magical importance which older and younger Beti women were participants of and gave their power with a literal spiritual edge over men. In this, even against the corrupt younger male politician with his own strategies, our heroines have their ancestral ritual to assist them, alongside a council of older women who can bend reality such as vanish in a blink of the eye.

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If the film has a problem is that it's trying to flesh itself out as a fully built work but with some obvious problems with its structure. What happens in the plot does feel anaemic by the end, an attempt to rip off a corrupt politician losing a great deal without knowing its context in terms of feminist/folk cultural politics. Neither does it help that this involved awkward under-cranked fight scenes which don't help any production. That the subplot where morning very influential people have replaced night's entertainments could've been established further more too, especially as disposing a body is a huge part of the plot originally. Where The Bloodettes stands proud and can overcome these issues is its attitude and style. How stylish its low budget and economic look is, especially as its entirely shot at night, an atmosphere both in the dark streets and the harshness of indoor lighting. Even the almost Godardian cutaways, to a bill board with different statements on them commenting how different genres are not possible - such as horror when death is a party - mean a lot more on this viewing as interesting self-reflections on the content within, the director clearly pastiching genres on purpose. And of course there's its empowerment of women, and especially black women from a non-English speaking country, with this film both in its use of a cultural ritual for women that could've been lost in history and how it generally depicts its leads as very resourceful figures helping to push over the stain on their country's soul. Something which we are in dire need of more in cinema and preferably in an unconventional work like The Bloodettes, not a sanitised and toothless creation to appeal to bland white English speaking middle class communities like some of the worst films for tokenism are made for.

Abstract Spectrum: Genre Hybrid/Psychotronic

Abstract Rating (High/Medium/Low/None): None

Personal Opinion:

A gem. Imperfect but shining with originality. It's a film in dire need of rediscovery for this and as a capsule of both an environment and a folklore that, alongside being more progressive than some modern "progressive" ideals, is something that you wouldn't know of unless you had films like this, the Mevoungou and its importance for women of a specific African culture allowed to thrive onscreen and not seem like a mere relic. 

From https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BZWI3ZGU5OTQtNzFjZC00NWU2LTgy
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See You In Hell, My Darling (1999)

From https://alchetron.com/cdn/See-You-in-Hell-My-Darling-
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Director: Nikos Nikolaidis

Screenplay: Nikos Nikolaidis

Cast: Vicky Harris as Elsa; Valeria Christodoulidou as Vera; Paschalis Tsarouhas as The Dead Man

Synopsis: Living in a purgatory all within a large house, childhood friends Vera (Valeria Christodoulidou) and Elsa (Vicky Harris) are struggling with their memories of before, a heist which ended poorly and returns back to them issues of jealously and animosity between the two women. It grows as the body in the pool (Paschalis Tsarouhas) starts walking around, a man both women are attracted to. That Elsa is still interested in the money they have adds to the growing tensions.

Nikos Nikolaidis is sadly an obscure secret. All the transgressive "New Weird" of Greek cinema that came to be in the 2000s, not just Yorgos Lanthimos but even subtler films like Chevaliar (2015) owes a debt to him. The differences between the sides is that Nikolaidis was a stylist, rejecting the cinema verité of the later directors in favour of exaggeration in style as much as content, a director of the sixties and seventies onwards who is chameleonic in production and unpredictable in what each film will be like, whilst still driven by clear obsessions. Sadly only one film of his has had availability and attention to it in a larger scale outside Greece, and is still obscure for many. Thankfully that film was Singapore Sling (1990), his infamous genre hybrid which could be seen as just a shock film - possessing violence, nudity, vomiting, BDSM, inappropriate rubbing with a kiwi fruit - were it not also a film noir pastiche with beautiful monochrome cinematography to die for. Skip over the end of the nineties and See You In Hell, My Darling rifts on that film's structure as a continuation. Two women, one man, some of the straight-to-camera monologues of the older film also by the actresses in character, but different still. Shot in colour and looking like a late nineties erotic thriller, but as with his other films, utterly against any predictable expectations.

The film never explicitly states where it is set. "Purgatory" is the only to describe where Vera and Elsa are, a place entirely confined to one house and a beach where moments of the unnatural puncture its nocturnal realm, the only other characters baring them and Paschalis Tsarouhas' role being a brief cameo by creepy, masked ambulance attendants, the environment aside from them  existing outside of mortal life. Flashbacks, in video, of a heist that went sour suggest as much, still tied down by the weight of their lives before. Vera encumbered by constant nausea and vomiting, Elsa obsessed with a jealously and continued desire for the money they acquired. Their beau played by Tsarouhas comes back in spite of having floated face down in the swimming pool for a long while, adding further tensions. From there it's difficult to define See You In Hell, My Darling as it plays not with large scale plot twists but small emotional dynamics over its length.

From https://i.ytimg.com/vi/R_xz3tNPLpw/maxresdefault.jpg

This is also where you realise why a film like and Nikolaidis' other work is likely been neglected so far despite the small cult around him. Singapore Sling was helped by a level of infamy, whilst still obscure. See You In Hell, My Darling is just as sexual, nudity and moments evoking a sensual relationship between the main female characters, but the story is more subjective. It's the type of film that's only starting to get more appreciated now the availability of cinema is slowly widening, not a film you can work out by simple big plot twists nor based on a simplistic drama as many mainstream art films. As a result you have to work with a more expressionist experience. Nikolaidis is an openly transgressive director and a corporal one obsessed with the human body in its form - thus someone goes to the bathroom only to puke up in response to the awful thing they witness - but he is also someone who likes his characters to be fluctuating. Morally grey figures who evolve and change over time, behaving in ways more realistic to the viewer themselves even if some of their acts are utterly surreal, not genre stock behaviour that are easy to archetype.

With this in mind, the performances from the main actresses especially are compelling. Vicky Harris and Valeria Christodoulidou have to do the heavy lifting for the film with only one other actor to work with. This is particularly a success as, exactly like Singapore Sling, they dominate the screen even if acting out scenes which be seen as tasteless or the director being a dirty old man if there wasn't a strength of conviction to their performances, allowing the pair to make such scenes make sense in the moment and far from contrived, dominating the screen and forcing us the viewer to follow them. This connects See You In Hell, My Darling to other later works of directors like Walerian Borowczyk or Andrei Zulawski, later pictures in their filmographies ignored or having been only started to be appreciated too where, even if they have their actresses commit to nude scenes or more transgressive plot moments, are dominated by actresses like Iwona Petry and Marina Pierro who take what could come off as humiliating moments and be dominant, always in these films the most complex and rewarding characters against the males and the actors' performances. It's the same here with Nikolaidis' film.

From https://videoth.uloz.to/M/m/v/xMmvfAN.640x360.1.jpg

The style I admit could wrong foot viewers, as like those other directors mentioned (or others with filmographies barely in access like Raul Ruiz) Nikolaidis willingly changed in aesthetic and technical differences per decade like water in a stream bends to its form. Thankfully nothing in See You In Hell, My Darling is an embarrassing time capsule of the late nineties, a film which uses its limited sets and actors to an advantage in how it gives the world onscreen an uneasy wyrd atmosphere. Even objects that time stamp the film like the use of a VHS player are limited and feeling like they have a logic, the ghostly edge of an afterlife where the obsolete technology also goes to. The overly surreal aspects also work so well because the director merely has to represent them with ordinary objects that stick out strongly in appearance to the main environments, from weird masks or the wedding dress Elsa wears, all of them appropriate for a film which is meant to be a crime pastiche, turning it in on itself and still living up to its narrative of betrayal, firearms and poisons.  

Abstract Spectrum: Expressionistic/Psychotronic

Abstract Rating (High/Medium/Low/None): Low

Personal Opinion:

Cinema which defies a genre and even dramatic expectations, likely to infuriate many, but as a unique blending of an erotic crime thriller with a purgatorial character drama this is imaginative and truly rewarding for me. That it is also a Greek film is itself a fascination, knowing that a country like Greece has such a complex and rich culture - from ancient Greek mythology and culture to films like the strange genre films to Nikolaidis - but is one that is severely under appreciated as an outsider looking inwards. Arguably the New Weird Wave of Greek cinema needs to call attention back to Nikolaidis as he personifies the country's defiance of country's defiance of conventionality with depicting the human condition.

From https://assets.mubi.com/images/film/23564/image-w856.jpg?1469410685

Pepperminta (2009)

Director: Pipilotti Rist

Screenplay: Pipilotti Rist and Chris Niemeyer

Cast: Ewelina Guzik as Pepperminta, Sven Pippig as Werwen, Sabine Timoteo as Edna, Elisabeth Orth as Leopoldine, Oliver Akwe as Kwame

Synopsis: Pepperminta (Ewelina Guzik) is a free spirit who has been taught to live life to the fullest by her grandmother, now a mechanical eye in a container, who also taught her to power of colour. With these in mind she starts to acquire allies in her goal to bring joy to the world.

Pepperminta, if one wants of a more known comparison, is Amelie (2001). However this is directed and written by instillation artist Pipilotti Rist, so rather than a man depicting a female free spirit, you have a woman's perspective which changes a lot of the attitude. Pepperminta is a sweet, soft-hearted film in which one character desires to bring the world to a better place, a mischief which involves her gaining the assistance of   a man kept inside by his mother due to perceived health issues, a woman who purposely dresses like a man and binds her breasts out of discomfort of herself, and an older woman who fears her encroaching death. Pepperminta acts before and after acquiring these allies is harmless, posting mail to hijacking a fancy restaurant, where such curious sights such as green spaghetti and a whole roast pig surrounded by Lego are created by her group.

Complimenting this is Rist's style, a perfect blending of old filmmaking techniques for the YouTube general such as stop motion, used for such memorable moments as police officers being assaulted by a sentient flock of fruit. It's a playful, fun style which thankfully never becomes coy and irritating. A huge factor is that Rist's reputation for colour in her work is on display, playing up the entire spectrum explicitly in the plot. Even in naturalist digital, the film is full of vibrant colour which plays onscreen.

From https://hirshhorn.si.edu/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/image_1_483.jpg

Pepperminta however is not a family friendly film. Amongst dealing with subjects like death, it also explicitly tackles content breaking perceived taboos.  Menstrual blood, which Pepperminta collects in a goblet, is a subject for example rarely tackled let alone with characters eventually drinking it. That and nudity where stereotypes of bodily perfection are through out of the way. This is however where Pepperminta slips, a sense of seriousness within what should be fun and light, but also shows the ideas are juvenile rather than helping the viewer overcome their own fears. If it is going to tackle the taboos of menstrual blood, it never feels fully developed Pepperminta herself, whilst admirably played by Ewelina Guzik, could come off as utterly annoying, in danger of becoming the free spirit whose behaviour is actually counterproductive in helping people, risky and in cases like randomly licking random objects behaving not in ways to show individuality but wasting energy. There's also heavy handed moments which feel out of place even amongst the serious material. The police that try to catch Pepperminta evoke such antagonist figures in cartoons, but adding religious priests amongst the police and snooty people (likely evoking Rist's atheism from a protestant background) feels counterproductive to a film whose message should be above that, which should be thinking out of the box rather than going for obvious things such a character like Pepperminta would find absurd.

The bigger issue is that, it's not Amelie that's the biggest comparison, but Věra Chytilová's Daisies (1966) that comes to mind in comparison to Pepperminta. Another female filmmaker, but with two female characters named Marie I (Jitka Cerhová) and Marie II (Ivana Karbanová).  In terms of films, Daisies is one of the best ever made in the medium, and in context of having been made in the oppressive communist regime, makes Pepperminta look like a trivial First World Problem movie. It also feels like it has no teeth next to Daisies. Daisies is a fun film, but it's also aesthetically and technically on a higher level, and it's so much more liberating and transgressive, the kind where the Maries would mock Pepperminta's pretentions for improving the world. Whilst the message sounds nihilistic, Daisies was made in the context of a social environment such films deemed unhealthy and destructive for human beings.

It's a sweet film but it, unlike Pepperminta, isn't "cute" but a manifesto that was against a real target, whilst Pepperminta is targeting stereotypes as cheap targets with the same tone of a self health book. Pepperminta and her assistants take over a dinner hall; Marie I and Marie II in Daisies find that destroying it is far more constructive in being destructive. Pepperminta doesn't become cloying in emotion but it's still pretty childish, the latter having greater power and making Rist's sole feature length work minor.

Abstract Spectrum: Experimental/Expressionist/Whimsical

Abstract Rating (High/Medium/Low/None): None

Personal Opinion:

It was fun whilst it lasted, but Pepperminta does not stand up beyond looking really nice and colourful.

From http://www.pepperminta.ch/wp-content
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