The Life (2004)

I watched this film three times yesterday. The first time for the sex, but the next two times increasingly aware that these sex workers were not actors (except for Mss. Hannah and Richards). Having to sit close to the TV screen to read the translation sub-titles was annoying, but what they were saying was must-read material. Wow. They don't mince any words. A sense of danger permeates all interviews, even the guys who try to pretend it's all in good fun. The strongest point of the film for me was the number of countries in Europe in which the action takes place. So many! And the girls who were sex-trafficked from Eastern Europe were the scariest witnesses. The deep connection between drug addiction and sex-working mirrored exactly the law-enforcement problems we're having here in Maryland, where the sex-trafficking trade is breaking out into the open. I loved this film, and not just for the sex. $6,000.000.00 well spent to inform us that prostitution has got to be legalized and regulated in the USA.

Part documentary and part fiction this film involves the world of prostitution. I give it plus points for interviews of substance which evidently are the real thing, minus points for the rather lame fictional parts, and minus a bit more for being rather thrown together. The film is connected with a book by Isabela Pisano, Yo Puta, which came out about same time on conversations with prostitutes. So apparently the driving force behind the film was Isabela Pisano, who as an actress in the late 70s starred in films as a prostitute, and who later as a journalist wrote a book Yo Terrorista and a biography on Yasser Arafat with whom she had some sort of relationship over a 12-year period. More about all this on Wikipedia and links you will find there. I do think that this film presents a very worthwhile, multifaceted view of prostitution. To its credit the film is more interviews than story.

It is refreshing to see a movie that approaches the sex industry from a matter of fact point of view, neither presenting a case for or against the profession, but merely letting the women (and men) speak for themselves. It's a shame that what is essentially a documentary had to be interlaced with the frankly pointless nod at the commercial market of including the uninspiring fictional Hannah/Richards subplot, something which ruins rather than enhances a movie that has very little technical merit of its own, but solely succeeds through the testimonies of the people that live and work in the industry. Some of the reviewers here have commented on the glamourising of prostitution, and this movie offers only a short glimpse of the sad underworld of the ladies that are forced or cheated into selling their bodies. But although this movie does acknowledge that aspect of prostitution, what it does better is explain how, despite the concept being unconceivable to so many 'normal' people, many if not most women that go into prostitution do so of their own free will, find it a very financially (and often mentally and physically) rewarding profession, and the only misery they really suffer is not directly from their work, but from the rejection that society thrusts upon them. Those that are involved in prostitution find it governs their lives, for good or for bad. Those that are not, ignore or condemn the practice. What this movie offers is a cry from sex workers not for help or pity, which is something only those in the most desperate of cases need, but a cry to be respected and accepted for what they do. Yo, Puta is no cinematic masterpiece. Essentially all it offers is a series of sex workers (and some clients) speaking about what they do. Where it succeeds is that despite the simplicity of the production, it is dealing with a subject that naturally enthralls - and that includes women that may never dream of ever having sex for money, but can't help but have a curious fascination to know what it would be like. It's one of the easiest ways in the world that a woman can make money, but at the same time one of the most difficult. This movie is worth 5 points at best, but from somebody who is trying to cope with the fact that his own girlfriend is an escort girl, and has learned so much that is both good and bad about a world he never knew, this was essential viewing for understanding what goes through her mind, and therefore gets a full 10.

They say Jesus Christ sacrificed for our sins, he suffered for us all… Alright, I think that I've just done the same that Jesus: I've watched "Yo, p..." so no one have to watch it anymore. I'll carry the cross, my brothers. The cross which is this apology of the prostitution, this fake documentary, this fake fiction. To prostitute yourselves is "just like any other thing" (that's what they say when they want to justify what cannot be justified, when they want to humanize the subhuman, to dignify the unworthy) , and men are just pigs, thirsty for sex, unmerciful pimps. The documentary part and its more than debatable message, its "artie" and post-modern touch, is hair-raising enough to keep yourself away from this treasure; but, let me tell you: the fictitious part is even worst!!! What did Denise Richards, Daryl Hannah, and Joaquin De Almeida drink in the party where the signed the contacts??? (I wan some of that too!!) . Well, the fictitious part has no rhythm, no sense of the narrative style… hey, What am I doing??? I'm not gonna lose more of my time with this crap: one of the biggest rubbish of 2004, and come on with that final dot!.My rate: 0/10