L'Apollonide (Souvenirs de la Maison Close) (2011)
Genre: Drama
Duration: 122 minuten
Alternative titles: House of Tolerance / House of Pleasures
Country:
France
Directed by: Bertrand Bonello
Stars: Noémie Lvovsky, Hafsia Herzi and Jasmine Trinca
IMDb score:
6,7 (8.575)
Releasedate: 21 September 2011
L'Apollonide (Souvenirs de la Maison Close) plot
The beginning of the 20th century, a brothel in Paris. A man beats up a prostitute and she is left with a scar in the form of a tragic laugh. Life in the brothel continues around this woman, with all their rivalries, their fears, their pleasures and their pains. However, the outside world is not affected by this, the house is a closed world...
Reviews & comments
The One Ring
-
- 29974 messages
- 4109 votes
Almost more an atmospheric image of a French brothel around the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth century than a story. The atmosphere is dreamy and sultry in a detached way, assisted by strong cinematography, beautiful sets and costumes and appropriate music (Nights in White Satin worked wonderfully for me). The tone is not one-sided either. The harsh reality of life in a brothel is not ignored, but there is also a melancholic undertone, especially once has to close the brothel and it becomes clear that the women will only get much worse. However, that last shot in modern times was not necessary for me.
What I also liked was how the brothel almost became a world of its own here. The prostitutes are hardly allowed to go outside and the film never shows anything coming in from the outside, which reinforces the somewhat unreal atmosphere. There is a trip to a park in it, but it still only shows the women together and so doesn't disturb the feeling, although I left it out. The increasingly dark tone is also well done. It really only works as a kind of mood image. I was not hit any deeper than that.
3.5*
Translated from Dutch · View original
wibro
-
- 11590 messages
- 4098 votes
Not exactly a movie to get excited about. When I saw Madeleine, which immediately reminded me of the Joker, I sometimes had the idea of watching a horror movie. I really didn't find it all that interesting what you were presented with. The atmosphere in the luxury brothel from the fin de siècle (19th-20th century) was beautifully depicted, but at a certain point it all took too long for me. It all got a bit long winded. Scenes that stood out for me included the scene of Lea playing doll and the only scene that took place outside the brothel, the prostitutes' trip to the lake.
Well, and if the image of a brothel in the late 19th, early 20th century is so important, then add music from the same period and don't bring in the Moody Blues. Doesn't fit this movie at all. The music of Puccini from La Bohème, on the other hand, is well chosen. The ending, the jump to the 21st century should have been omitted for me.
3.0*
Translated from Dutch · View original
Robi
-
- 2538 messages
- 2531 votes
A film about the ins and outs of a brothel at the turn of the last century. The film is initially quite distant and not very personal. This makes it more like a documentary than a feature film. And I actually wish it was a documentary too. At least then it was real and for that reason it could still be somewhat fascinating. And so the film builds up very slowly in the first hour and a half. And in the last half hour, the director apparently wants to try to make something of it. Out of nowhere, the music of the Moody blues is suddenly used with Nights in white satin. Before that, music did not play an important role in the film at all. And the music doesn't fit at all with the time in which the film is set. But it does work very well. Suddenly there is a very intense and very beautiful scene. And then the film certainly starts to get better and the individual people get a bit more of their own personality, in which the necessary emotion also starts to play a bigger role. But in the end it will not be a top film.
Translated from Dutch · View original
Trending Movies
Corporate & Media
Realtimes Network
Innovatieweg 20C
7007 CD, Doetinchem, Netherlands
+31(315)-764002
