All I can recall about Virginie Despentes and Coralie Trinh Thi‘s Baise-Moi, which opened stateside in the June ’01, is that (a) it was more controversial than good, (b) it was more invested in violent male-hate than anything erotic or half-porny, and (c) it was shot with somewhat primitive video equipment without supplemental lighting and therefore looked extremely crude. I’m only mentioning it because Arrow Video is hyping a new Baise-Moi DVD (out Monday, 3.25) in an unusually honest way.

While some critics thought the low-budget look “added to the film’s uncompromising style, others strongly disagreed with the New York Post [stating] that it ‘looked like hell,'” Arrow’s press statement says. “It is because of the film’s production techniques that Baise-Moi will never be released on the Bluray format. While some distributors may have looked to cash-in on an ‘improved’ Bluray version, the original digital print of the film is not high quality enough to ever look any better than this DVD version, regardless of the medium it is shown on.”

That statement alone almost makes me want to buy the Baise-Moi DVD. I probably won’t have to as I’ve written the Noble guys and asked for a freebie, but either way this kind of honesty is pretty much unheard of in video marketing circles. I’m also partial to any film released in 1.66.