The Bloodettes (2005) User Reviews

The Bloodettes Daisies.

[morrison-dylan-fan · 5/10 · 24 March 2021]

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 kitsch Horror with a futuristic Sci-Fi setting that opens up Bekolo's examination of the rising damp of corruption in Cameroon,and the two ladies aspiring to break away from the roles society is trying to conform them to, which becomes hazy due to the detached, Avant-Garde stance Bekolo takes towards the bloodettes.

TIFF material???

[jo_avarice · 2/10 · 11 September 2005]

I just came from seeing this so-called sci-fi political satire from Cameroon at the Toronto International Film Festival. I don't think I have the words to describe how bad this film was. Put it this way: about twenty minutes in, realizing that I was trapped in the middle of the row, I *willed myself to go to sleep so that the time would pass more quickly*.

I couldn't believe such an amateurish piece made it to the internationally-renowned TIFF. The production values mirrored those of bad 70s-era BBC sci-fi television shows. From the end of the opening credits to the end of the closing credits, the editing was appalling. I think at times the director was intentionally using jump-cuts to create a sense of disorientation, but I can't be sure, since at certain times it simply looked like he was re-doing a take and not bothering to edit to a different POV to cover it up. The laughable acting, which might have been forgivable in a work by high-school film students, was hardly helped by a screenplay that left the audience incredulously trying to sort out what the hell had happened and how the hell we'd gotten to where we were. SPOILER, for those who still think they may bother to see it: The best (worst? funniest, at least) bit was the kung-fu/go-go-dancing climactic scene in which the two female protagonists overcame the Minister of State by invoking some kind of primal female life-force.

This was, bar none, the worst movie I have ever seen. On the People's Choice ballot, I gave it a 1 out of 5. I was not the only one, by a long shot. If there had been negative numbers, I'm sure people would have gladly voted to take points away from their total score. I'm giving it a 2 here simply because I figure I should give it the benefit of the doubt for getting completed despite political and financial disadvantages. I couldn't believe there were still people left in the theatre at the end -- perhaps, like me, they were hoping that the Q&A would clear up their bewilderment. However, it turned out that the director was as inarticulate with words as he was with film -- even in French, his native language.

it helps to know where he's coming from...

[eharrow · 8/10 · 26 February 2006]

I have seen Les Saignantes 3 times and each time like it more. It helps to know Africa a bit when you see it, because Bekolo is not trying to make the usual huts-and-boubous-film, but is trying to show the emotional realities of living in a corrupt, polluted, city where prostitution is rife and idealism is punished. The censorship board of Cameroon has not yet decided whether to censor it, supposedly for its sexual content but probably for its political stands. It's a pretty direct commentary on Cameroon's present government. I think the film misses its aims slightly, but that's because he was trying to do too much. He wants to show women prevailing, daring to fight back, to stand up, and he wants to adapt an African ritual (mevungu) in a modern form. He wants to make a political statement in a time when it's dangerous or irrelevant to do so. I still don't exactly get the turns of the plot, but I don't think the plot's that important. I enjoyed the images, even the MTV-ish ones, I enjoyed the references to other films, and I enjoyed the slapstick butchery, stuff you won't see in any other African film by any one else.

Jean-Pierre Bekolo's Successful Attempt

[ckommangars · 9/10 · 15 October 2005]

Les Saignantes is a very well crafted film that is able to make a strong statement about what's going on on a social scene in Cameroon as well as reinventing a modern film language with great cinematography, effects and editing. Something I have never seen before. Jean-Pierre Bekolo'a film is a cinema lesson to the empty action, sci-fi nerds as he reinvents the genre maybe with the help of his African and French perspective that is so much needed in a genre that keeps repeating itself. Les Saignantes is a hand-made film that doesn't look like one. Majolie and Chouchou the two lead characters are girls doing what only boys are allowed to do in films: breaking the rules. Disobeying the order. And they do it for a community that is dying because of corruption. Jean-Pierre Bekolo uses a sexy action dance as a metaphor for women empowerment and makes it at the same time appealing to a very young audience that is always left out in this continent where half of the population is less than fifteen years old. Les Saignantes speaks the language of a young audience while dealing with a crucial issue of political leaders abuse on young girls and the impact it has in the way public affairs are being managed. The acting is fabulous, The bad guy played by Emile Abossolo you have seen in Highlander is just outstanding. Essomba the mortician is hilarious. The mother character and the women are fascinating. Les Saignantes is a film made by a generation of Africans who belong to the world without loosing their identity. This is a film a seriously recommend to anyone who is expecting more for popular cinema genres.

Les Saignantes

[vivian-57 · 8/10 · 18 October 2006]

I've been chewing on Les Saignantes for over a year now. Immediately after I saw it, the aftertaste was a little bitter from the dark cinematography and the unexpected beginning. However, the benefit of a discussion with other movie-goers and the writer/director sweetened my palate a bit. The rich and varying perspectives about the film's futuristic time period, western and African cultural influence, sexuality, political plot, and the feminist subtext made quite a fattening but flavorful dessert. Since then, the wave of American movies about Africa, intense international focus on African markets and development, unprecedented philanthropic attention from the likes of Bill Gates and the Clinton Foundation, the election of Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf as Liberia's first female president, and a trip to Africa last summer has seasoned the relevance and significance of Les Saignantes for me. The film's political and cinematic irreverence provokes what every great film is supposed to - controversy, thought, change, and creative precedent. Les Saignantes pushed me to open my taste buds to a new flavor of African cinematic fare that may be ahead of its time, but definitely worth the bite.

DOPE African FILM

[melissaadeyemo · 8/10 · 22 October 2006]

This movie is incredibly refreshing and thought-provoking.

First, as someone who is vaguely familiar with African cinema, the filmmaker is considerably avant-guard in his approach to the political satire. The lighting used to evoke emotion is both stark and beautifully layered against the destitute, and often scary backdrop of present day Cameroon.

Also, the protagonists of this film are women. More importantly, they are superheroes of sorts, who use their beauty and brains to get what they want and need in a country where the government does not fulfill its most basic function to its people, which is to provide an infrastructure that can sustain job development, education, and health care for its citizens. Their "super powers" come from a cultural tradition called the mevoungou, in which they use their sexual prowess to overtake their aggressors.

To be honest, I thought these women where gold-diggers when I started watching the film. However, they are so deeply connected to their culture that they derive strength from a cultural facet that can easily be mocked by most representatives of modernity.

The plot, though disjointed, does express one major point, which is that this film is not about the inabilities of a people, but rather that of a government. With so many initiatives starting back up that aim to help "Africa", such as LIVE EIGHT or the fight to end paybacks of IMF and WORLD BANK loans, there has been a real focus on a mass body of PEOPLE not being able to provide for itself. However, I think present day media furthers an injustice because as a privileged set, Americans can forget that Africans are part of a continent and within the continent are countries and nation states that are then sustained by governments. If those governments cannot provide for its people, can we simply say that the PEOPLE are destitute and lacking, or rather, should we say that their governments are?

The best part of this film is that rather than ask "What is wrong with Africa(ns)?," this film demands that the audience ask the question that often gets ignored in the debate which is, "What is wrong with African leaders and their method of governance?" This is a question worth being heard, and for that reason this is a film worth seeing.