House of Pleasures

(2011)

★ 6.5 IMDb · 289 votes

Genres: Drama

Year: 2011

Runtime: 120 мин

Country: France

Director: Bertrand Bonello

Cast: Noémie Lvovsky, Hafsia Herzi, Селин Саллетт, Jasmine Trinca, Адель Энель, Alice Barnole, Iliana Zabeth, Judith Lou Lévy, Pauline Jacquard, Anaïs Thomas

Plot

The dawn of the 20th century: L’Apollonide, a luxurious and traditional brothel in Paris, is living its last days. In this closed world, where some men fall in love and others become viciously harmful, the women share their secrets, their fears, their joys and their pains.

Life in an elegant early-20th-century Parisian brothel. The madam essentially owns the women: their expenses exceed earnings; they are in debt. They face problems of pregnancy, opium, age, and violent clients. One reads sociology at her peril. Occasionally, a client talks of marriage. There are also friendships and affection among the women. The madam is in a dispute with her landlord and calls on influential clients to help. There's a picnic one summer day, a wake, and an evening in masks. Have they expectations? A street scene in contemporary Paris is the coda to this experience.