Elles (2012)

Some of the sequences in Malgorzata Szumowska's film are quite difficult to view - especially the scene where one of the student prostitutes (Anaïs Demoustier) willingly allows herself to be urinated on by one of her clients, or has a champagne bottle thrust into her vagina. These moments are designed to emphasize the pitfalls of the whore's existence - even if both Charlotte and Alicja (Joanna Kulig) manage to make sufficient funds to support themselves in some style during their student lives.Nonetheless Szumowksa reminds us that we should not judge their decision too harshly. By contrasting their lives with that of well- to-do journalist Anna (Juliette Binoche), who is writing an article for ELLE magazine about their lives, the director suggests that in many ways the prostitutes live a superior existence. They enjoy an independence that is denied to someone like Anna, who has to spend most of her leisure time caring for a feckless husband (Louis-Do de Lencquesaing) and her three children. ELLES is full of scenes where Anna is shown working alone in the kitchen, or talking on the phone to a disembodied voice. As the film closes, she is shown silently listening at a dinner party while Patrick and his friends prattle on about various subjects; in the end she grows so frustrated that she simply walks out of the house for a breath of welcome fresh air.In contrast both Charlotte and Alicja enjoy a considerable degree of independence; they exert power over their (mostly middle-aged) clients, to the extent that they can determine in advance what they will do and what they will not do. The money they earn gives them the spending power to please themselves.As the film progresses, so we see Anna becoming more and more enamored of the girls' lives. She is shown talking in the park to Charlotte; the two of them become quite close to one another, as denoted through a series of two-shots. While alone with Alicja in Alicija's apartment, Anna partakes of vodka (although claiming that she does not drink), and ends up on a passionate embrace with the younger woman. While alone in her own apartment, Anna pleasures herself in an extended scene, where Szumowska's camera focuses on her face as she gradually comes to orgasm. Sex gives her the kind of power that she can never enjoy either at work or during her family life.In the end, however, that power proves illusory. The film ends with an extended shot of Anna sitting down to breakfast with her husband and two of her children - an image of familial normality that suggests mental as well as physical imprisonment. Although empathizing with the two girls, she can never enjoy their independence.ELLES is a thought-provoking piece, shot in deliberately low-key style. Director Szumowska achieves some striking thematic effects, most notably through the use of music that often contrasts with the emotions of the characters shown on screen. At one moment Anna is shown walking morosely about her living-room; on the soundtrack we hear the second movement of Beethoven's Seventh Symphony - a homage to death. The grandeur of the music is set against the mundaneness of Anna's life; she would love to improve it, if only she could.

In the enjoyable but ultimately silly film, a wealthy Parisian journalist interview a couple of students who are earning their way through college working as prostitutes. Expecting to pity them, she finds herself envying (and fancying) them; the film makes the point that interviewer and interviewees alike inhabit a world that is full of rich men and luxurious surroundings, but the working girls have a measure of sexual excitement and control lacking in the married life. Now I can accept that not every prostitute is drug addicted, enslaved and so on: but it's hard to believe in the romantic and glamorous way their lives are depicted. Interestingly, this is a film directed by a woman, and starring three women as well: clearly the stereotype of the high-class hooker has enduring appeal to both sexes.

I have just watched "elles" and wasn't expecting much after reading some pretty poor reviews. However, despite its subject matter, this is not the gratuitous sub-porn that some would have you believe. It is more intelligent and sensitive than that. It's also far from trivial.As usual (and as most have conceded) Juliette Binoche is terrific. Her masturbation scene reminded me of Ingrid Thulin's in The Silence.I also thought that a nice touch was the Spider-Man toy in the laundry room, that JB removes from the basket and places on top off the washer and tumble dryer. It gets in the way, and falls back into the basket. And you can see/feel that this has probably been done so many times before.I loved this film and feel it has more to offer upon repeated viewings.

Polish screenwriter, producer and director Malgorzata Szumowska's fourth feature film which she co-wrote with Danish French-based psychoanalyst, journalist and screenwriter Tine Byrckel and co-produced, is somewhat based on stories from real-life prostitutes which the director met as part of her research. It premiered in the Special Presentations section at the 36th Toronto International Film Festival in 2011, was screened in the Spotlight section at the 11th Tribeca Film Festival in 2012, in the Panorama section at the 62nd Berlin International Film Festival in 2012 and is a Poland-France-Germany co-production which was shot in Paris, France and Cologne, Germany and produced by Danish-French producer Marianne Slot. It tells the story about a journalist for the worldwide fashion magazine Elle named Anne who lives in Paris, France with her husband named Patrick and their two adolescent sons named Florent and Stephane. Anne is doing an article about female student prostitution and is enlightened when she meets a French woman named Charlotte and a Polish woman named Alicja who explicitly tells her about their experiences with their clients.Finely and intimately directed by Polish filmmaker Malgorzata Szumowska, this quietly paced fictional tale which is narrated from the viewpoints of a driven reporter and two young call girls, draws a somewhat engaging portrayal of a middle-aged woman who after getting to know and becoming intrigued by a lifestyle that is very foreign to that of her own, begins to care more about the theme of her article than her own family. While notable for its at times atmospheric, bleak and mostly interior milieu depictions, fine production design by production designer Pauline Bourdon and cinematography by Polish cinematographer Michal Englert, this character-driven and dialog-driven independent film depicts a dense study of character and contains a good score by Polish composer Pawel Mykietin.This at times graphic and as intended dispassionate and unattractive story about young women who supports their high-class lifestyles by pleasing the repulsive sexual fantasies of mostly married male clients who are old enough to be their fathers and how their stories and perceptions of their chosen profession affects an outsider's view on them and her own way of life, is impelled and reinforced by its fragmented narrative structure, subtle character development, multiple viewpoints, evasive characters and the credible acting performances by French actress Juliette Binoche, Polish actress Joanna Kulig, French actress Anaïs Demoustier and French screenwriter, director and actor Louis-Do de Lencquesaing. This unsentimental erotic drama where the suspense is centered on whether or not the protagonist's fascination and empathy for the sex workers will seduce and instigate her to risk losing her family, commendably attempts to create new perspectives on a theme that has been thoroughly examined in many other fictional and non-fictional feature films.