L’Apollonide (Souvenirs de la maison close)
Director: Bertrand Bonello
Writer: Bertrand Bonello
Cast: Hafsia Herzi, Céline Sallette, Jasmine Trinca, Adèle Haenel, Alice Barnole, Iliana Zabeth, Noémie Lvovsky

Plot:
As the 19th century draws to a close, Marie-France’s (Noémie) brothel has a good reputation and is rather well-visited. Nevertheless Marie-France struggles with debt just as her girls struggle with their debt to her. As they engage with the clients in more and much less benign ways and find the support they need in the friendships with each other, all of them dream of freedom.

L’Apollonide is a fantastic movie with wonderful actresses, a great story and beautiful settings that grabbed me from the start and didn’t let me go again.

I was surprised by how much I liked this film. I was worried that it would come down to a bit of fetishization of the period and prostitution (because that’s what usually happens in movies about prostitution, especially when they’re set in another period or exotic location). But Bonello manages to stay away from those pitfalls.

Instead he focuses on the women themselves and their friendships with each other, their hopes and dreams. He doesn’t gloss over the crappy parts of their job and the risks they’re taking, Marie-France is a business woman first and watches the girl’s debts like a hawk – there is no fluff there, no faux-empowerment talk. And at the same time it’s not all drudgery either. People do get out, they do get chances. The women win sometimes.

All of that is accomplished in beautiful settings and costumes that are emphasized by a couple of instances where Bonello juxtaposes the historical with a modern soundtrack. (Most poignantly with The Moody Blues’ Nights in White Satin – if I hadn’t been crying already by that point, I definitely would have started then.)

But none of it would have worked as well as it did if the cast hadn’t been as excellent as it was. Usually there’s a couple of standouts in a good cast who are really great. But in this case they were all stand-outs. The script gave all the actresses actual characters to play and they do so with wonderful strength and sensitivity.

Summarising: I loved every minute of it.