House of Pleasures
2011 ‘L'Apollonide - Souvenirs de la Maison Close’ Directed by Bertrand Bonello
Synopsis
A highly cinematic and atmospheric look at the final days of a turn of the century brothel when much of the Parisian sex trade was confined to grand maisons, populated by elegant madams and vetted clientele.
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"what will you do now?"
uh, so i think this is some kind of masterpiece? but if FLOWERS OF SHANGHAI taught me anything, it's that i'm a sucker for languorous period pieces about cloistered, opium-addicted prostitutes (and who could blame me?). will have to stew on how i feel about how things progress once the petals begin to wilt, but this already resonates with me as a sonorous still-life about prisons within prisons... a panopticon of the body.
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If we don't burn, how will we light up the night? Πεντάστερο ανερυθρίαστα.
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This review reportedly contains spoilers. I can handle the truth.
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Film #4 (of 12) in Chuck's Around the World Movie Challenge.
An elegiac study of fin de siècle sexual politics, House of Pleasures visualizes its eponymous brothel if it were a collection of pre-Raphaelite paintings brought to life. The brushstrokes of light and shadow conceal (or at least obfuscate) the artifice of its gilded interiors and studied haut-bourgeois trappings; it diverts our attention from the gossamer-thin fiction of blank-faced female passivity, the overrehearsed affectations of bodies posed in tableaux of sexual submission and languid eroticism.
The film luxuriates in the beauty of its denizens, but also recognizes that they're trapped in a zero-sum game. The hazy eroticism of its perverse male fantasies clashes with its clinical-gynecological portrait of corporeal maintenance…
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Bertrand Bonello's film about a high-end brothel circa 1900 has a languid, dreamy atmosphere that is infectious - we observe the cast of beautiful young women as they go about their lives at the brothel (they're only allowed one day outside, a riverside picnic, during the film). There's an undeniable erotic charge between the very theatrical preparations the women undergo to please their clients and the soundtrack of '60s rock songs that underscore the action (a sequence Paul Clark mentioned to me a while ago, scored to "Nights in White Satin," is indeed awesome). The cinematography and editing are wonderfully expressive, especially the best use of split screen I've seen outside of De Palma. At the same time, Bonello doesn't…
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"Αν δε καούμε, πώς θα φωτίσουμε τη νύχτα;". Αυτό. Plus, λα-τρε-ψα το τέλος.
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Film #4 (of 12) in Chuck's Around the World Movie Challenge.
An elegiac study of fin de siècle sexual politics, House of Pleasures visualizes its eponymous brothel if it were a collection of pre-Raphaelite paintings brought to life. The brushstrokes of light and shadow conceal (or at least obfuscate) the artifice of its gilded interiors and studied haut-bourgeois trappings; it diverts our attention from the gossamer-thin fiction of blank-faced female passivity, the overrehearsed affectations of bodies posed in tableaux of sexual submission and languid eroticism.
The film luxuriates in the beauty of its denizens, but also recognizes that they're trapped in a zero-sum game. The hazy eroticism of its perverse male fantasies clashes with its clinical-gynecological portrait of corporeal maintenance…
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I want that wallpaper.
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Bertrand Bonello's film about a high-end brothel circa 1900 has a languid, dreamy atmosphere that is infectious - we observe the cast of beautiful young women as they go about their lives at the brothel (they're only allowed one day outside, a riverside picnic, during the film). There's an undeniable erotic charge between the very theatrical preparations the women undergo to please their clients and the soundtrack of '60s rock songs that underscore the action (a sequence Paul Clark mentioned to me a while ago, scored to "Nights in White Satin," is indeed awesome). The cinematography and editing are wonderfully expressive, especially the best use of split screen I've seen outside of De Palma. At the same time, Bonello doesn't…
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Interesting take on the side of brothels. I love how it was a more show back then, today, it is wam. I enjoyed the playing on the fantasies of the girls and the men, they differed so. I the only part I did not particular care for was the ending..the lead in did nothing for me. I
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This one had me going back and forth whether or not I liked it at all, but the final 30 minutes cemented it for me. I wish it had been that bold throughout the film. Not an easy film to get through, and it could've used another go-around with the editing to tighten it up a bit, but it was good.
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Charming story.
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"Αν δε καούμε, πώς θα φωτίσουμε τη νύχτα;". Αυτό. Plus, λα-τρε-ψα το τέλος.
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If we don't burn, how will we light up the night? Πεντάστερο ανερυθρίαστα.
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Bona bona!