House of Tolerance (2011)

At an elegant Parisian bordello at the dawn of the 20th century, exists a cloistered world of pleasure, pain, hope, rivalries, and most of all, slavery.

Director:

Bertrand Bonello

Writer:

Bertrand Bonello (scenario)

Stars:

Noémie Lvovsky, Hafsia Herzi, Céline Sallette

4 wins & 14 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Noémie Lvovsky	...	Marie-France
Hafsia Herzi	...	Samira
Céline Sallette	...	Clotilde
Jasmine Trinca	...	Julie
Adèle Haenel	...	Léa
Alice Barnole	...	Madeleine
Iliana Zabeth	...	Pauline
Pauline Jacquard
Judith Lou Lévy	...	(as Judith Lou Levy)
Anaïs Thomas
Maia Sandoz	...	(as Maïa Sandoz)
Joanna Grudzinska
Esther Garrel
Xavier Beauvois
Louis-Do de Lencquesaing

Storyline

Life in an elegant Parisian brothel in the early twentieth century. The madam essentially owns the women: their expenses exceed earnings, they are in debt. They face problems of pregnancy, opium, age, and violent clients. One reads sociology at her peril. Occasionally, a client talks of marriage. There are also friendships and affection among the women. The madam is in a dispute with her landlord and calls on influential clients to help. There's a picnic one summer day, a wake, and an evening in masks. Have they expectations? In a coda, we watch a street scene in contemporary Paris.

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Plot Keywords:

brothel | french prostitute | voyeurism | lust | female removes her clothes | 

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Taglines:

An Aesthetic Shock.

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Genres:

Drama

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Country:

France

Language:

French

Release Date:

25 November 2011 (USA)

Also Known As:

House of Tolerance

Filming Locations:

Paris, France

Box Office

Budget:

€4,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$4,766, 18 November 2011, Limited Release

Gross USA:

$19,327, 18 December 2011

Company Credits

Production Co:

Les Films du Lendemain, My New Picture, Arte France Cinéma

Technical Specs

Runtime:

122 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The casting says "Clotilde" but her name is misspelled (as "Clothilde", rather a common error in France) in the movie when we see the lines of name/debt written by the matron.

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Goofs

A character says he's been to the inauguration ceremony of the Paris Metro. After that there is a scene where we hear fireworks for Bastille Day (14 July). The opening of the Paris Metro (Line 1) was on 19 July 1900, five days after Bastille Day.

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Connections

Featured in Ebert Presents: At the Movies: Episode #2.24 (2011)

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Soundtracks

Plaisir d'amour
by Bertrand Bonello and Eloïse Decazes

User Reviews

Serious and complex film

This is a serious and complex film. It takes the audience out of their comfort zone. Not everyone will understand the film. The film is about women that may have no other choice but to sell their bodies, about freaks that buy their bodies, about these women's inability to pay off their so called "debt", about cruelty, about general stigma that surrounds these women. All of the women in the story's brothel are regular girls that have no one to turn to for help, but possibly each other. The reference to the pseudo "study" that one idiot sites in the film, the choice of music, the way the film ends - all help to make the audience think about the film and its story not as something from the past, but as issues that continue on and the reasons (society maybe) behind these issues.