DVD Review: ‘House of Pleasures’ Vividly Explores Life in Parisian Brothel

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CHICAGO – L’Apollonide, the Parisian brothel in Bertrand Bonello’s “House of Pleasures,” is one of the most vividly realized movie locations in recent memory. The voyeuristic allure of cinema fuses with the film’s painterly imagery to create a subtly surrealistic dreamscape within the establishment’s claustrophobic walls. The picture is seductive and repellant in about equal measure, but never short of hypnotic.

Though “Pleasures” (alternately titled “House of Tolerance”) is clearly the work of a filmmaker influenced by the “male gaze” represented in everything from Monet artwork to early silents, the film is resoundingly successful in its attempts to view life from the perspectives of the female prostitutes. As the young ladies externalize the kinky fantasies of their clients, Bonello allows the viewer to peer into each woman’s own thoughts and dreams, thus illuminating the strong-willed psyche within the submissive façade.

DVD Rating: 4.5/5.0

Consider the character of Madeleine (Alice Barnole), who drifts through much of the film like a ghost haunted and irrevocably damaged by the gruesome acts of a recurring customer. Prior to the abuse, she dreamt that the client proposed to her, and Bonello seamlessly intertwines Madeleine’s imagination with her subsequent disillusionment and disfigurement. The beguilingly sullen Léa (played by Adèle Haenel, who displayed sexual magnetism as early as Céline Sciamma’s “Water Lillies”) knows precisely how to please her clients while repressing her own fatigue. In one memorable sequence, she disappears into the severe figure of a doll that moves its joints with robotic precision. We later hear her tell one of the other ladies that she dreams of the day when she’ll never be required to have sex again. 28-year-old Clotilde (Céline Sallette) has grown jaded by her status as a slave and the insistence of her boss, Madam Marie-France (Noémie Lvovsky), to consistently keep the women in debt. On the opposite side of the spectrum is Pauline (Iliana Zabeth), a youthful new recruit who naively views employment at the brothel as an opportunity to live independently. There’s a clinical coldness to the quiet scene where Madam orders Pauline to strip during her job interview, and yet the moment nevertheless generates an undeniable erotic power. Zabeth projects both vulnerability and confidence as she allows her voluptuous, Renoiresque features to be fully exposed in the well-lit room.

Iliana Zabeth stars in Bertrand Bonello’s House of Pleasures.
Photo credit: IFC Films

Bonello shifts between each of these characters with an attention to detail and sense of storytelling economy that is frankly Altmanesque. There’s not a single story thread in the picture that feels disjointed or out of sync with the others. Cinematographer Josée Deshaies nails the shimmering decadence of the period while contrasting the theatrical atmosphere of the luxurious clientele quarters with the raw grit and chilly emptiness of the ladies’ backstage prison. Spilt-screen shots are strikingly used to juxtapose the domestic life of Madam and her children with the simultaneous activities of her employees. A sequence where the girls are allowed to relax at an outdoor picnic plays like an exhilarating breath of fresh air, and for a moment, it seems as if the Madam actually cares about her girls, as she wistfully watches them bask in the opportunity to act their age. Yet Madam’s wistfulness may be caused primarily by her fear that the increase in rent may result in the folding of her business. Dread and paranoia also arise in the form of illness, as one woman finds herself succumbing to syphilis, while the others are objectively observed with unsettling scrutiny by a visiting gynecologist. Pauline Tarnowsky’s study equating the brain structures of prostitutes and thieves causes one of the women to burst into tears. As 1899 morphs into 1900, L’Apollonide’s uncommon beauty threatens to wither away entirely.

House of Pleasures was released on DVD on March 13, 2012. Photo credit: IFC Films

In a way, Bonello’s film is about the end of an era in turn-of-the-century France, yet it also emerges as transcendently relevant to any era. By portraying the brothel in a way that is both straightforward and impressionistic, enigmatic and intimate, perceptive and poetic, Bonello has truly made a movie for the ages. In the production notes, the director confesses that he listened to soul music of the ’60s while writing the film because “the soul of the black American singers” felt intrinsically linked with the women in his film, perhaps because they were essentially slaves. Modern music in a period film is nothing new at all, but Bonello’s use of American tunes in “Pleasures” is among the most inspired. “The Right to Love You” by The Might Hannibal howls over the opening titles, while “Nights in White Satin” by The Moody Blues provides the perfect melancholic tones for a key scene late in the picture. As for Lee Moses’s “Bad Girl,” let’s just say that it deserves to be resurrected on iTunes in the immediate future. It’s the best end credit number I’ve heard in quite some time.

“House of Pleasures” is presented in its 1.85:1 aspect ratio, accompanied by English and Spanish subtitles, and includes two intriguing but somewhat underwhelming extras. A 16-minute casting featurette accompanies scenes from the final cut with the actress’s videotaped auditions that aren’t entirely unlike the ones endured by their characters (Zabeth has particular fun striking seductive poses on a couch). The 25-minute “Prologue: From Writing to Editing” documentary chronicles the director’s perfectionism as he goes about completing the opening scene between Madeleine and her client-turned-predator. Bonello wonders aloud if he’s repeating himself with this sequence, as the viewer samples clips from his previous efforts, 2001’s “The Pornographer” and 2003’s “Tiresia.” It’s interesting to watch how Bonello allows the camera to linger on a given shot, causing time to stretch ever-so-slightly prior to the edit, while accentuating the brothel’s “cocoon-like atmosphere.” This quickie doc is a superb look at Bonello’s technique, but an in-depth interview would’ve provided more insight into the ideas, influences and provocative imagery that make “Pleasures” such a singular treat.

By MATT FAGERHOLM Staff Writer HollywoodChicago.com [email protected]