Heidi Fleiss: Hollywood Madam (1995) (TV)

Director:

Nick Broomfield

Release Date:

9 February 1996 (USA)

Genre:

Documentary | Biography

Plot:

A documentary crew from the BBC arrives in L.A. intent on interviewing Heidi Fleiss, a year after her...

Plot Keywords:

Prostitution | Narration | Character Name In Title

Cast

Nick Broomfield	...	Narrator
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Madam Alex	...	Herself
Corinne Bohrer	...	Actor
Mike Brambles	...	Himself
Cookie	...	Himself (voice)
Elisa Fleiss	...	Herself
Heidi Fleiss	...	Herself
Jason Fleiss	...	Himself
Jesse Fleiss	...	Himself
Kim Fleiss	...	Herself
Paul Fleiss	...	Himself
Shannon Fleiss	...	Herself
Gaby	...	Herself (as Gabby)
Daryl Gates	...	Himself (Los Angeles Chief of Police)
Ron Jeremy	...	Himself
Ivan Nagy	...	Himself
Victoria Sellers	...	Herself
Susie Sterling	...	Herself
Jim Wakefield	...	Himself

Runtime:

106 min

Country:

UK | Germany | USA | Canada

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Company:

British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)

Quotes:

Heidi Fleiss: I just realized there were young pretty girls around and a lot of rich men.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Biggie and Tupac (2002)

Sewer diving with Nick

Intrepid documentarian Nick Broomfield looks to uncover the real story behind the notorious Hollywood Madam Heidi Fleiss in this fascinating, repellent film.

Broomfield is, as usual, totally fearless, and uses his oh-so upright British bearing ("I'm doing a piece for the BBC")to mask the fact that he's a complete gutter-crawling slimebag, able to hold court with the sleaziest characters imaginable. At first, Fleiss won't grant Broomfield an interview (she is arrested for violating her probation shortly after he arrives in Los Angeles) so he pursues her friends and associates with tunnel-vision tenaciousness.

All the neon slime is on display here: pimps, hookers, adult film stars, drug dealers, crooked cops, shady figures of all shapes and sizes. Broomfield goes after them all without fear.

The two people he spends the most time with are Madam Alex, a creepy old-world crone from Hungary who controlled the Hollywood flesh trade before Heidi stole it from her, and Ivan Nagy, a smiling, brutish pimp-drug-dealer-movie-director (also Hungarian) and Heidi's ex-boyfriend who also (supposedly) was the one who narc'd on her to the police. The two spend their time on camera telling wild, half-baked stories and making accusations against each other that criss-cross and contradict so often that eventually it becomes clear that they ARE ALL lying to some degree.

Fleiss does finally give Broomfield an interview and she comes off quite well. Intelligent, lively, and a keen observer of human nature, she clearly is no dunce, although its tough to believe she could actually go toe-to-toe with either Nagy or Alex.

In the end, because he's on screen so much and is such a persistent presence, "Hollywood Madam" is more about Broomfield and his relentless desire to get at the truth than anything. At times, one can only marvel at the audacity of this guy: whether badgering known drug-dealers and pimps until they all but plead with him to GO AWAY, or making what amounts to crank calls to an underworld enforcer (and possible ex-Moussad hit man) Broomfield walks through it all with a zeal it is hard not to admire.