The title of this film, "Messidor", denotes the first summer month in the calender of French revolution, derived from French "moisson" which means harvest. However, this explains the title, but not the content of this movie. Latin "metere" also means to butcher somebody.
The films does not make it quite clear which is the reason why the two young women break out of their families. Is it because they have everything they need and they just want to experience the life of the needy? Is it a protest against bourgeois society (at least we are at the end of 70ies)? Are they really inspired by French or German terrorist movements (as the police assumes)? When she is asked by a stranger woman, Marie says their reason is "the experience of empty time in empty space". Thus, the experiment. How far do you come with zero Swiss francs in your purse? How different are the reactions of those when you have nothing compared to earlier when you were able to pay them? Who is actually willing to give you a little salami, although he hears every Sunday in church that God will appear in the form of the neediest of all brethren? No, Jeanne and Marie are not Thelma and Louise. The never actually menace people. When they sit in a restaurant and eat for free, they offer to work instead of paying, telling frankly that they had hunger but have no money. But the owner tells them that he does not have a salvation army bow and he will now call the police. This an experience for the two girls after having made a experiment. In the next station, in the grocery store, they have learned that by humiliating themselves they do not reach the mercy of the other people. They just make another experiment: "Look, we don't have money, but we have that", Jeanne says pointing to the military pistol that they had stolen from a Swiss army officer. And so this "road movie" (more an inner than an outer road movie) goes on. The more merciless their experiences get, the harsher their next experiments turn out - and the less can the two await justness. When a group of men rape Marie, Jeanne splits the skull of one of them with a stone, found nearby in the forest. This was the first experience and leaded to the theft of the Army pistol. That there is an increasing chain of causality in their behavior remains unclear to the police that broadcast the couple's "criminal acts" which the audience believes. It is actually very hard to differentiate up to which degree Marie and Jeanne are culprits or victims. One of the last scenes, where the two stay overnight in a stable, Marie says that she is afraid of her feelings, she would feel very happy and very depressed at once. Jeanne answers that she is "flipping out". One is strongly remembered by some of the last scenes in R.W. Fassbinder's "Despair", which had just appeared one year before (1978). The experience of empty time in empty space leads to a trip into the light. Exactly parallel is also the end-scene, when Marie and Jeanne are arrested - compare the arresting of Hermann Hermann in "Despair".
The films does not make it quite clear which is the reason why the two young women break out of their families. Is it because they have everything they need and they just want to experience the life of the needy? Is it a protest against bourgeois society (at least we are at the end of 70ies)? Are they really inspired by French or German terrorist movements (as the police assumes)? When she is asked by a stranger woman, Marie says their reason is "the experience of empty time in empty space". Thus, the experiment. How far do you come with zero Swiss francs in your purse? How different are the reactions of those when you have nothing compared to earlier when you were able to pay them? Who is actually willing to give you a little salami, although he hears every Sunday in church that God will appear in the form of the neediest of all brethren? No, Jeanne and Marie are not Thelma and Louise. The never actually menace people. When they sit in a restaurant and eat for free, they offer to work instead of paying, telling frankly that they had hunger but have no money. But the owner tells them that he does not have a salvation army bow and he will now call the police. This an experience for the two girls after having made a experiment. In the next station, in the grocery store, they have learned that by humiliating themselves they do not reach the mercy of the other people. They just make another experiment: "Look, we don't have money, but we have that", Jeanne says pointing to the military pistol that they had stolen from a Swiss army officer. And so this "road movie" (more an inner than an outer road movie) goes on. The more merciless their experiences get, the harsher their next experiments turn out - and the less can the two await justness. When a group of men rape Marie, Jeanne splits the skull of one of them with a stone, found nearby in the forest. This was the first experience and leaded to the theft of the Army pistol. That there is an increasing chain of causality in their behavior remains unclear to the police that broadcast the couple's "criminal acts" which the audience believes. It is actually very hard to differentiate up to which degree Marie and Jeanne are culprits or victims. One of the last scenes, where the two stay overnight in a stable, Marie says that she is afraid of her feelings, she would feel very happy and very depressed at once. Jeanne answers that she is "flipping out". One is strongly remembered by some of the last scenes in R.W. Fassbinder's "Despair", which had just appeared one year before (1978). The experience of empty time in empty space leads to a trip into the light. Exactly parallel is also the end-scene, when Marie and Jeanne are arrested - compare the arresting of Hermann Hermann in "Despair".