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House of Tolerance

Release Date 27 Jan 2012 TBA

  • User rating
  • Currently 2/5 Stars.
  • Critic rating
  • Currently 1/5 Stars.

   

Certificate: 18

Genre: Drama

Selected for the official competition at Cannes 2011, House of Tolerance is directed by the award-winning Bertrand Bonello (The Pornographer, On War), and tells the story of the last days of a French brothel at the dawn of the 20th Century. In a closed world, where some men fall in love and others turn vicious, the girls form a strong bond, sharing their secrets, their fears, their joys and their pains.

Cast:
Hafsia Herzi | Adele Haenel | Jasmine Trinca | Louis-Do De Lencquesaing | Noémie Lvovsky | Céline Sallette

Writers:
Bertrand Bonello

Producers:

Directors:
Bertrand Bonello

  • Critic rating
  • Currently 1/5 Stars.

Movies.ie Critic Review

The turn of the last century, and life inside an expensive brothel is proving increasingly tough, and expensive, for the girls working inside. And the work can get tough too, Madaleine (Barnole) ending up with a slashed mouth after a client attacks her. As new arrival Pauline (Zabeth) is shown the ropes – and the chains – we get to see the demands put on the girls (robotics, fake geisha, champagne-a-go-go). And we get to see one of them die from syphilis. Sweet.

THE VERDICT: All the fun and frolics – and the odd hairy bollocks – of a turn of the 20th century French brothel are brought to life in this soft porn-dressed-up-as-arthouse romp. More stylish rumpy-pumpy, in other words, from the aptly-named French filmmaker Bertrand Bonello, who previously gave us The Pornographer and Tiresia. Bertrand would plainly like to see himself as the new Bernardo Bertolucci but, in reality, he’s far closer to being Robin Askwith in a beret here. 
RATING: 1/5

Review by Paul Byrne 

  • Avg User rating
  • Currently 2/5 Stars.

User Reviews

    • Currently 3/5 Stars.

    mart

    . the movie drips with silk and velvet; you can very nearly smell the leather and perfume... But there's another story in the hollow eyes of the assembled courtesans, the palpable air of hopelessness that pervades this pretty, airless film.

    • Currently 2/5 Stars.

    filmbuff2011

    Ahh... the French. They have great history, art, wine, food... and some very odd films. House Of Tolerance is the type of arthouse film that only the French could make. Maybe something has been lost in the translation, as it's more unintentionally funny to a foreign audience. It's set in turn-of-the-20th-Century Paris and charts the lives of a group of young women who work as prostitutes in a brothel. The story tends to follow one lady of the night in particular, a woman scarred by a client and who now resembles Heath Ledger's The Joker. Like the recent Shame, for a film about sex it's remarkably unsexy. At one point during a routine medical check, one woman remarks that if she ever gets out of this brothel, she'll never have sex again. It shines an unusual light on prostitution that is far removed from the likes of Pretty Woman. Sadly, the film is frequently pretentious and drags on far too long. One scene towards the end has to be seen to be believed. The coda at the end re-inforces the idea that nothing has changed in the world's oldest profession. Yeah, we know that. Only for the curious and tolerant.

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