Chichester Cinema at New Park
House of Tolerance
- L'Apollonide (Souvenirs de la Maison Close)
Bonello’s fifth feature-length film, this is that rare type of film - both shocking and disturbing to the eye, yet provocative and intriguing enough to captivate you.
Based on a screenplay written by Bonello himself, ‘House of Pleasures’ takes place entirely in a Parisian brothel at the turn of the 20th Century. Its inhabitants vary from naïve teenagers who seek independence from their families and girls in their late 20s, already considered old and brittle.
Each girl has a sad story to tell, each with enormous debts forced to pay them off by living and working in the house. Life is difficult for the prostitutes. They have no future, no hope. Their debts will never be paid off.
Some will catch fatal diseases, which is unavoidable; others suffer a fate far worse - mutilation and lifelong humiliation. A client assaults one girl so badly that she ends up with the nickname “The Woman Who Laughs.” ‘House of Tolerance’ unveils an emotional core in its finale that offers a level of cumulative catharsis that reaches inexplicable heights, it's a celebration of the individual and the collective; nostalgia for the past and an acceptance of the shape-shifting present. (Subtitles)
France · 2011 · Bertrand Bonello · 122min
