L''Apollonide (Souvenirs de la maison close) (2011)
House of Tolerance (French: L''Apollonide: Souvenirs de la maison close, also known as House of Pleasures), is 2011 French drama film directed by Bertrand Bonello,[1] starring Hafsia Herzi, Céline Sallette, Jasmine Trinca, Adèle Haenel, Alice Barnole, Iliana Zabeth and Noémie Lvovsky. The story is set in a Parisian brothel in the early 20th century.[2] The film premiered In Competition at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival.
Production
The genesis of the project was a merge of two film ideas Bertrand Bonello had been thinking of. About ten years earlier he had tried to make a film about modern brothels, but the project had been cancelled. After finishing De la guerre from 2008, Bonello decided that he wanted his next film to be about dynamics within a group of females, and his partner suggested a film about prostitutes in a historical setting. The director then became interested in the aspect of a brothel as a closed world from the viewpoint of the prostitutes. The idea of a scar in the form of a smile came from the film The Man Who Laughs, an adaptation of Victor Hugo''s novel with the same name. Bonello says he dreamed about the film two nights in a row while he was writing House of Tolerance, and decided to include a female character with such a scar.[3]
The film was a co-production between Les Films du Lendemain and the director''s company My New Picture, in collaboration with Arte France Cinéma. The production received 540,000 euro from the CNC and 416,000 euro from the Île-de-France region, as well as pre-sales investment from Canal+ and CinéCinéma.[2][4] The total budget was 3.8 million euro.[5] Casting took almost nine months. Bonello wanted a mixed ensemble of both professionals and amateurs who above all worked well together as a group.
Filming started in Saint-Rémy-lès-Chevreuse on 31 May 2010 and lasted eight weeks.[2] The film was recorded on one continuous set, which allowed the camera to move between each room without cuts. Bonello chose to focus the camera on the girls and almost never their clients. He explained: "it reinforces the impression that the prostitute is above the client. I told the actresses: ''Be careful, I want twelve intelligent girls.'' It was really important for me: they''re not being fooled, they are strong women."
This claustrophobic picture (aka L''Apollonide Souvenirs de la maison close) is a frank, unexploitative account of life in a smart Parisian brothel in 1899 and 1900. It demonstrates that la belle époque was less belle for the girls than for their wealthy clients, though better than walking the streets or working in a sweatshop. The film is superbly designed to suggest the oppressive, hypocritical haut-bourgeois decor, the obsessive eroticism that excludes real desire, and the languorous timelessness that makes one day like another. There is enough detail about money, cosmetics, hygiene, sexually transmitted diseases, theatrical deportment and authentic camaraderie to qualify the film as a kind of documentary. But a final coda offering a glimpse of whores in present-day Paris, waiting in the streets for passing motorists to pick them up, shows that plus ça change, plus c''est le même commerce. The movie''s most startling image is of an abused, once beautiful prostitute who imagines her client''s sperm turning into tears and flowing from her eyes
