From the Other Side of the Gun to the Other Side of the Camera: Adapting Despentes' Baise-moi for Cinema

“C'est moins spectacle qu'au cinéma” (72) says Manu in Baise-moi (1993), after her first murder. While this comparison between reality and cinema underlines the lack of effect reality has, compared to the power of images, such a desire for cinematographic effects also represents the protagonists' will to not merely be the agents of their lives but the directors of their cinematography. However, despite the attempt to achieve a
filmic aesthetic, the unusual violent and sexual acts performed lack the desired spectacularity. In this article, I argue that the characters’ will to direct images and the frustration deriving from the lack of cinematography runs parallel with Virginie Despentes'
decision to adapt her novel into a film. Despentes' style, albeit aggressive, does not match the violence of the actions committed by her characters. In mobilizing Robert Stam's concept of adaptation, I show how, in focusing on the performance of the violent and pornographic reality imagined by the protagonists, the adaptation represents the cinematic actualization of the protagonists’ actions in the novel. Their
position on the right side of the gun to shoot at all opponents corresponds to Despentes and Trinh Thi’s decision to place themselves on the right side of the camera to challenge a bourgeois voyeuristic audience.