She is Barbarian

I've had my eye on She Is Conann (2023) for a while. Love those woman barbarian movies, and this was a French art film as well. Maybe that was the problem. 

It starts in black and white (and mostly stays there). An old woman is sitting in a sort of dream beauty salon, being menaced and caresses by dog-faced man with a woman's voice and a jean jacket with the his name on it, Rainer. She is being taken to meet Queen Conann.

From her throne in a sort of dystopian grotto, she tells her story. She was a young girl who came to close the barbarian women, and their queen, Sanja, kills her mother and takes her as a slave. Conann vows revenge. Rainer introduces her to herself, 10 years older and played by a different actress. He explains that the older Conann is ready to kill Sanja right now, if younger Conann doesn't want to wait to grow up. When she agrees, older Conann kills her, and now she is the only Conann.

Her attempt at revenge on Sanja goes wrong when she starts kissing her instead. And they become a killing team, ruling the barbarian women, glorying in the gore. And every now and them, Conann meets her older self and gets killed.

For a while, Conann and Sanja live as lesbian lovers in the Bronx, 1980s, with Conann becoming a celebrity stunt woman. It's all about the style. 

Towards the end, she has become very rich, and invites a bunch of the artistic glitterati for a feast with a deal. They inherit all of her wealth if they devour all of her corpse - or almost corpse. She will be heavily anesthetized and cooked while still alive. Now, this is a bit of a spoiler, but mainly a warning. This scene goes on FOREVER. There's lots of gore previously, but in flashes. This just goes on and on. 

All of this is done in a retro-cheapo style, mostly black and white, with color sections, mainly when there's blood being shed. It's full of attitude, sexiness, and punk rock cool. Unfortunately, like in Spine of Night, there wasn't a cool punk score to enhance this. 

If this hadn't been so gore-obsessed, it might have been fun. Or maybe if any of the characters had been interesting or at least less repellent. Oh, well, you pays your money (none, got from library) and takes your chances. Won't be searching out other movies directed by Bertrand Mandico.