The official plot outline runs: Two young women, marginalised by society, go on a destructive tour of sex and violence. Breaking norms and killing men - and shattering the complacency of polite cinema audiences.
Not seemingly a good premise for a decent film, and as such, initially I expected it to be a shock movie, cheap and dirty, and out for as much publicity by including hardcore violence and sex to make up for its short comings.
I was most pleasantly suprised, in possibly the best updating of the French New Wave I have seen for a long time. It borrows quite heavily from a lot of Truffaut's early work. Handheld cameras, shot in public, not in studio, and with the similar raw feel.
Indeed my only slight quibble is the excessive hardcore nature of the rape and sex scenes, featuring regular full frontal views and hardcore (not simulated) sex showing pretty much everything. Not for nothing the choice of the two main actresses are/were both stars in the French porn industry. "Were" in the case of Karen Bach who committed suicide last year.
Anyway, this graphic depiction does serve to draw attention away from the point the film is trying to make. Indeed the only truly effective of these scenes is the rape scene which illustrates the mental decay of one of the victims who later becomes the instigator of the pair of womens' alcohol-fuelled violence and sex rampage across France. Her comparison of her TANGO to a car left overnight in the neighbourhood is incredible in its coarseness and baseness, and the matter of fact way in which it is delivered. Indeed attitudes portrayed in the Projects gave you some insight into the mindsets of those involved in the riots across France recently.
That scene occurs in the aftermath of the rape, and indeed a lot of the best points of the film are made during the quiet scenes, the beach hotel offering a period of respite and questioning for the pair of what they are actually doing. And the ending again raises interesting points (I won't detail here in case anyone wants to go see the film.)
While definitely not one for family viewing, and probably not overly popular with the missus either, it is a good film, and at £5 on DVD in most places, worth picking up.