L'Apollonide (2011)

2011, no subtitle,

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L'Apollonide
(Souvenirs de la maison close)
Genres: Drama /  Adult
Year: 2011
Director: Bertrand Bonello
Cast:  Noémie Lvovsky / Hafsia Herzi / Céline Sallette / Jasmine Trinca / Adèle Haenel / Alice Barnole /
Iliana Zabeth / Pauline Jacquard / Anaïs Thomas / Maia Sandoz / Joanna Grudzinska / Esther Garrel / Xavier Beauvois / Louis-Do de Lencquesaing / Jacques Nolot

Life in an elegant Parisian brothel in the early twentieth century. 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.