The Bloodettes 2005 ‘Les Saignantes’ Directed by Jean-Pierre Bekolo
Best friends Majolie and Chouchou are two beautiful young women trying to get ahead in a near-future Cameroon. After accidentally killing a powerful politician during sex, the two come up with a plot to dispose of the body, and get into the glamorous wakes that have taken over the local nightlife.
a story about women aspiring towards futurity in the face of postcolonial dystopia
the opening with her doing an erotic dance dangling by her hips from the ceiling...i was floored ! let that be me!
apparently 'mevoungou' refers to a kind of ancestral feminine wisdom/secret ritual celebrating women's reproductive capacities amongst Beti people in Cameroon, largely suppressed by French colonizers. the chorus of older women who kept popping in and out of the narrative can only represent some kind of guardians of this tradition i can presume. loved the fact that this tradition was harnessed by the women, that they gave themselves up to this force without completely understanding how it was affecting them, to combat corrupt politicians, abusers, and…
An African exploitation/horror satire that does everything it can think of to invert the misogynist, gendered tropes of the genre -- it even tries to dismantle the primacy of the male gaze. (Yeah, I know -- good luck with THAT...). Something about two ambiguously lesbian women, attuned to some orisha or other that they can't really control, who do battle against the vampires in Cameroon's government. Mostly by teasing them sexually until they die of heart failure.
If only it had been good enough -- funnier, maybe, or more coherent -- to live up to its promise. Still... the underlying concepts were dazzling, so it's at least a very very very very very very noble failure.
A good candidate for a double feature with Daisies (1966).
Female leads who don't GAF, political satire, startling editing, bold colours and some truly out-there strangeness all make this a fun watch despite its low budget and confusing plot.
My main criticism would be that unlike Daisies, this was directed by a man and the gaze on women's sexuality was very male, although I commend him for making a movie in which female power and ingenuity, sexual and otherwise, cuts through the bu11shit of male (Cameroonian) politics.
Watched as part of March Around the World #20 - Cameroon
I don't totally understand what this movie is about. I wrongly assumed that it was a vampire film. I guess they're more like witches? Kind of a confusing mess. It's really nice to look at but the plot is convoluted and deliberately boring. The parts that are interesting are barely explored, like the coven of Bloodettes that eat giant grub worms and drink ecto cooler out of oversized novelty martini glasses while playing dress-up in a bedroom with a poster for Scream. Can I get a whole movie that's just THAT.
"How can you make an action film in a country where acting is subversive? How can you make a horror film in a place where death is a party? How can you film a love story where love is impossible? How can you make a crime film in a country where investigation is forbidden?"
These are some of the questions The Bloodettes asks on billboards in its fourth-wall-ruptured sequence transitions. The year is 2025, and two women team up to dispose of the nation's secretary general's corpse after one of them fucks him and he dies. It's a nighttime odyssey, stylish and giallo-esque. They meet many sleazy men along the way--taxi drivers, policemen, more powerful political men.
The women share…
it’s so cool to see more African cinema prominently featured on the Criterion Channel. Touki Bouki, I Am Not a Witch, and Rafiki are a few of my favs. Any one of those films would make for a great double feature with this.
gave up on trying to follow the dizzying plot and just surrendered to the gorgeous neon splattered sci-fi vibes matched with an incredibly pulsing score and charismatic performances from the two leads.
also that Scream poster in the bedroom was such a nice detail and made me chuckle 🙃
so this was anarchy but i had a good time
enough conceptual brilliance and delightful moments of scheming and/or homoeroticism that i did not care that it didn't always make much sense
the dancing and fighting sequences and all the edits are amazing
i love that they facetime on a nokia, and that politicians are vampires, and the power of gossip, and the billboards
just great
March Around the World 2018: Cameroon
Perhaps the epitome of style over substance, Jean-Pierre Bekolo's grim, near-future satire is set into motion when an important government official dies having sex with one of the main characters. She and her friend spend most of the movie trying to dispose of his body and dealing with the fallout of their choices, but the plot doesn't really matter. Bekolo throws all sorts of odd details onto the screen, so by the end somebody could justifiably call this an erotic sci-fi horror movie. With social commentary. And witches. And vampires? Also, a subplot about a disaffected young cop.
The whole thing is shot on digital, and Bekolo dresses up the ugly visuals and limited…
Before the screening of this film there was a note that read "Please note: The quality of the image differs from usual expectations" and I have to assume that they meant that it massively exceeds any and all assumptions of form and convention.
Les Saignantes operates entirely in an oneiric register, from the neon glow, jittery editing and deep droning reverberations. But most notably, through the repetitions of movements, sounds and images Bekolo evokes an extreme form of the dream logic Mark Rappaport finds to exist in the MGM films of the 40's and 50's due to the recycling of props of sets.
Bekolo employs the ephemerality of this dream state to attempt to deconstruct, and then reconstruct in its…
This is fantastic and on Kanopy!!! I will be thinking about it for a long time and i don't think pinning a genre on it will do much good, its a socio-political-sci-fi-horror-comedy... the first cameroonian film i have seen and it surpasses colonial categorisation so take that. so much packed in i need some time to think and watch back
I was in the mood for a low-budget sci-fi the other night and put this on. It has the aesthetic of something that went straight to video in 1989. That doesn't make it bad though. Replikator? Anyone? In fact, this flick is much greater than the sum of its... parts. I mean the characters of Majolie and Chouchou do strut around in somewhat risque attire throughout but that isn't what I mean. This is political satire wrapped in science fiction. Would it be helpful to have a basic knowledge of the political scene of Cameroon? Perhaps but then again probably not.
The world needs more Supernatural black leabians. They style and color in this film are beautiful!
The Bloodettes Daisies.
5 out of 10.
On the final day of the 2021 WOW Film Festival,I decided to check the main page for any interesting looking- titles I may have missed spotting. Taken by the surrealist poster,I got set to encounter the bloodettes.
View on the film:
Swaying to a similar beat that Vera Chytilova's Czech New Wave Daisies (1966-also reviewed) grooved to, editor/writer/directing auteur Jean-Pierre Bekolo unleashes a hyper-stylized, Avant-Garde Pop-Art creation, with Majolie and Chouchou's travels around the city being wrapped in surrealist over-saturated colours, repetitive,experimental music notes,fluid edits and flowering dissolves across the screen.
Stating pretty clearly the intent behind the making of the film with on-screen text appearing several times, the screenplay by Bekolo dices…
Strange and fascinating film from Cameroon about two women who use their power to bring down a government. The film is halfway between an exploitation film and something more radical and experimental. Shot in a stylized way with extreme colours and lots of video effects, it's a very different approach from a filmmaker whose work I haven't seen before.
How can you watch a film like this and do nothing afterwards?
Umm... well... I have a lot of films on my watchlist, so... yeah.
I like the aesthetic—those digital greens of the early ‘00s. It works for the futuristic vibe they’re going for in this. Some scenes are more engaging than others—plenty of unnecessary exposition and dragged out montages—but overall, the film succeeds in keeping my attention despite a scattered and unclear plot. The intertitles are a nice touch that I feel could have been even more effective. In general, a lot of the technical aspects could be improved, but the amateurish feel is a vital component of the message.
MARCH AROUND THE WORLD: Cameroon
WOW FILM FESTIVAL 2021
I really don't understand some of the love for this one. I'll happily confess upfront that my knowledge fo Cameroonian culture and politics is practically none exist and I'm aware that the film has a lot to say about both of these areas. However, simply as a film I found The Bloodettes to be a struggle to get through, the constant music, jittery editing and laughable martial arts all left me cold.
Damn that opening scene had me entranced.
First viewing thoughts: The lighting on these women is exquisite. The music is 🔥. They film is punctuated with nearly subliminal pointed sociopolitical commentary.
The women? They are fun, they are nocturnal, they are terrifying (in a good way), they are savvy AF, they take care of and support each other through and through, they bribe cops without blinking an eye, they dance like cosmic succubi.
The men? They are grunting, they are bumbling, they are blinded by cash and skin...they are disposable.
Favorite lines include:
“Have you ever seen the woman in the moon?”
“So a pangolin crossed the road..."
“Just two holes that always get screwed in the end”
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