2. Baise Moi (2000)
Baise Moi is probably the most explicit film on this list in terms of graphic sexuality. But to me, the hardcore scenes are not merely smut or out of place, they have their use within the narrative, there is no attempt to eroticise them, and they blend seamlessly with the general tone of the film. Nadine and Manu are two disenfranchised and alienated young women who team up together and go on a criminal rampage throughout France. Manu, at the beginning of the film is gang raped and then shoots her brother for his suggestion that she is a whore and enjoyed/deserved it. Nadine meanwhile has killed her flatmate in an argument over rent money. When Nadine and Manu meet - it is as if they are soul mates. Their criminal actions include shooting a woman at at ATM and shooting everybody in a swinger's club. Eventually, their violent partnership is brought to an end. The film is an exercise in nihilism. It has shocked a great deal of people have have had the good fortune to see it. The violence and the hard core sex scenes are raw and brutally realistic, and the acting from the two female leads is very good, making the whole scenario believable. Although they are porn actresses by trade - Karen Lancaume and Raffaella Anderson can definitely rise to the occasion in the acting stakes. They are fully rounded, authentic characters who like to have fun but both are terribly mentally scarred. When Manu is raped at the beginning of the film, she doesn't protest and just lets the men get on with it, reasoning to her friend at the end, "at least they didn't kill us". This is a radical attitude towards rape which has never been explored before, and the hardcore sex sequences during the rape serve to highlight this fact. Despised by many as filth, I believe Baise Moi uses hardcore sex more effectively than the majority of films in this list. The sex scenes are very appropriate.