Apollonide - Memórias de Um Bordel (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 & 15 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.

---

Plot Keywords:

brothel | french prostitute | voyeurism | debauchery | lust | 

---

Taglines:

An Aesthetic Shock.

---

Genres:

Drama

---

Certificate:

M/16

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.

---

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.

---

Connections

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

---

Soundtracks

Nights In White Satin
Written by Justin Hayward
Performed by The Moody Blues

User Reviews

Naked women can be boring

I wouldn't have believed it, but it's true.

Beautiful naked women parade around the screen for just over two hours. And yet it is just plain tedious.

Nothing happens in this film. It's unrelievedly gloomy, the girls are all depressed, none of them like sex, and the men all want to do bizarre things with them.

We don't learn much about many of the girls.

We learn little or nothing about the legal or social system in which the maison close operated, i.e., what was legal and what was not.

I really do not understand what the point of the film was.

Avoid it.

Details

Country:

France

Language:

French

Release Date:

12 January 2012 (Portugal)

Also Known As:

Apollonide - Memórias de Um Bordel

Filming Locations:

Paris, France

Box Office

Budget:

EUR4,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$4,766, 27 November 2011

Gross USA:

$19,327

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$1,389,920

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