Baise-Moi

Black Rebel Motorcycle Club are the new Jesus and Mary Chain. I am ecstatic!

Yes the gig was wonderful thank you!

Watched some great films with Darth Rich on Saturday night! Welcome to Collinwood was a delightful character study which didn't do anything I expected and had a marvellous ensemble cast including George Clooney (who also co-produced the film), William H Macy, Luis Guzman and the gorgeous Patricia Clarkson. I'd highly recommend it to anyone.

Then we watched Baise-Moi, a film I have been wanting to see for a while after Ms Spooky's glowing recommendation. For those of you who are not aware Baise-Moi is a French film and the title translates roughly as "Fuck Me!" It has caused uproar at just about every film festival it was shown at.

Basically its a female revenge film but co-director Coralie Trinh Thi is a former porn star, as are the two leading actresses. The film has the look and feel of the Dogme school of filming, it's shot in video rather than film, employs natural light, and uses "normal people" instead of high-profile stars. It also includes many scenes of penetrative, close-up sex, with a particularly brutal rape scene that has brought the wrath of censors around the world.

Based on the other co-director, Despentes' novel of the same title, the film follows the adventures of Manu (Raffaela Anderson) and Nadine (Karen Bach), two bored, beleaguered, sexually aggressive young women. Manu is an underage porn star, Nadine is a prostitute, they are both very hot, but not in a glossy model type way at all.

Nadine's curse is an anal roommate who bitches constantly about Nadine pilfering her beer. Manu is involved with a noxious pack of slackerboys who abuse her regularly. Nadine eventually gets tired of her roommate's complaint and slams her head into a wall in a bloody murder. Manu watches her alleged friends kill her best friend on the street, then she's raped. The two then join forces to fuck their way through the byways of France, in the process killing a slew of men and the occasional woman who foolishly crosses their path.

Nadine and Manu kill the way they fuck, with a mix of the methodical and the passionate. Some of the killings fit the feminist schema, e.g, when Manu blows the brains out of one of her tormentors. Others are gratuitous, as when she robs and then kills a woman at an ATM machine. Most troubling, at first glance, is a John Woo-style balletic assault on a sex club, with innocent revellers dispatched mid-fuck. The part where Manu throws up over a man mid-blowjob had me in absolute hysterics as did the scene where Nadine is servicing a client and watches avidly on the hotel TV, a large sausage being sliced with a carving knife, while her clients fucks her from behind!

While some critics (and certainly the censors) have objected to the rape scene as "gratuitous", it's hard to fault the film's insistence on showing the gruesome details of this event to capture its ugly reality. Personally I found the film intriguing and entertaining in equal parts, as well as an apt commentary on the de-humanising effect of society on individuals. Its also a very black comedic "poke" at what is perceived to be "un-feminine" behaviour.

It also must be said that not all the film is grim, grainy reality. Some of the encounters are warm and sexy particularly when our heroines, who seem most alive during sex, pick up two hunks that they don't kill. There is also a wonderfully hot scene in which the women, clad in fetishy black bras and nylons, dance together in a hotel room. The actresses' ease with their sexuality may be partly responsible for making such scenes, which could easily degenerate into foolishness, work.

No its not a perfect film, its slightly over long and a tad voyeuristic but its worth watching. Definitely not for the faint hearted however.

Oh and then we watched the Cowboy Bebop film. The anime style in this was just gorgeous, really fluid and delightful to watch, particularly in Spike's fight scenes. I was a little disappointed overall by the story which lacked some of the *snap* of the series but I shall no doubt re-watch it several times.

I am *still* looking for good Cowboy Bebop slash recs if anyone can give me any. Alternatively can someone *please* write me some Vicious/Spike slash? I shall be your eternal slave if you do. *big kitten eyes*

Sundry Squee-ness

First up I must say *thank you* to the ever so, ever so lickable crackernuts who has done me a *spanking* new Kronos/Methos image manip here. Its not entirely work safe though.

Then I must welcome another very clever and shiny fan of HL to LJ. Greetings, Salutations and Welcome to crowie and let me be the first to rec her hugely entertaining screencaps for various HL episodes. So far she's done Till Death, Something Wicked/Deliverance, Comes A Horseman and Revelations.The Horsemen episodes in particular had me in hysterics. Go and tell her how wonderful she is and hopefully she will then do Methos and Methuselah's Gift!

*sighs* You know its so lovely to have supremely clever and talented friends in fandom! I just wish I could respond in kind, instead I shall just have to stick with trumpeting their praises from the dark and murky shallows of fandom in which I lurk.

Speaking of which there has been a positive *orgasm* of fic to read recently which means I have been beside my evil little self with joy and spanglingness! The frighteningly prolific and uber shiny elistaire a.k.a Tray has done it yet again with a delicate watercolour of a fic called Sublimation which speculates on what exactly happens to all the old immortals. The fic is odd and its quirky and as usual she manages to hit the *exact* right balance of happy/sad. Go read and enjoy.

Actually the whole taterville stable of authors has been active. Pat has just done a nicely written and well observed Angel/Highlander Crossover called Blood Bath. Now, I am no expert on Angel and I'm not a fan of xovers as a rule, but I did enjoy this one along with her QAF xover which I have recced previously. There is also a sequel called Touché which I haven't read as yet but which all preliminaries suggest should be equally as good. I would be very interested to hear from actual Angel fans, as to their opinions on these fics.

A brand new writer called Beth brings us her first story involving the rarer HL pairing of Methos/Joe. Its called Home and its got a great start but then kinda ends rather abruptly, just as its getting going. Beth seems to have a good grasp of the characters she is writing and I'd like to see her flesh this story out a bit more, since I'm quite partial to this pairing if its handled with sensitivity.

Of course I went into positive paroxysms of joy when I found out that Sharon Cross is writing a sequel to her frighteningly clever and engrossing SF AU Specter which if you have not read, I would heartily recommend, not least for the utterly *meep* inducing pic of Duncan/Specter on the frontpage. The sequel is called Songs of The Flesh and is very much a WIP at the moment. The first chapter however has already hooked me and I shall be watching how this one progresses with great glee. Help me by going and poking Sharon to write more quickly!

To finish I am going to rec to very different but equally brilliant stories, which it has been my very great pleasure to read today. First the multi-fandom wonder that is olympia_m gifted us with the darkly gorgeous and incredibly evocative The Oldest Story. Apparently this was something written some time ago when she was still active in the HL fandom and has just been found. Well, all I can say is lets hope such gems get *found* all the time as this is a beautifully written AU, with a perfectly edible Methos, who I would *love* to see some more of, but I suspect I shall have to be content with this offering. *sighs* The fic has some very light BDSM overtones which are handled with a delicacy which brings joy to my blackened old heart and I can't rec it highly enough.

The second fic is a slight departure as its a Highlander/X-men xover. Now comics are an old love of mine and the X-men fandom in particular introduced me to some fabulous writers. One of my long times faves is the rather awesome [Bad username or unknown identity: thete1.]

I stumbled across her Unbound almost by chance and I am very, very glad I did. The pairing is not what you would expect and its not a slash story, so this may indicate to you how much I *like* this fic. Its short and concise and as usual her deft turn of phrase leaves me gasping with delight and green with envy. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did and I am not going to say any more because I want you to go and read it for yourself without being *spoiled*.

That's all folks, so go read and enjoy and don't forget to feedback the authors!

Oh and while I couldn't find any Vicious/Spike fic I did find this wonderful bit of fanart by the lovely devosama which I suppose will have to keep me happy for the moment *winks*

That is all!