House of Pleasures (2011)

• 68%
• 2011
• Drama
• Bertrand Bonello
• Noémie Lvovsky
• Hafsia Herzi
• Céline Sallette

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? In a coda, we watch a street scene in contemporary Paris.