Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? is the name of the Philip K. Dick novel that Ridley Scott famously adapted into Blade Runner. Wading into similar dystopian sci-fi waters, Bertrand Bonello’s latest feature, The Beast (La Bête), tosses together so many ideas, time periods and genres, its source material could have been called: Do French Girls Dream of Androids While Trying to Escape from Incels in L.A. After the 1910 Paris Flood?
In reality, the auteur’s ambitious new 146-minute film is a very loose adaptation of the 1903 Henry James novella, The Beast in the Jungle, about a man who never pursues the woman he loves because he fears a terrible fate will befall him — until he realizes, way too late, that he made his fate come true by never pursuing her. Bonello takes that initial conundrum, slices, dices and remixes it, then tosses it into a time machine.
In reality, the auteur’s ambitious new 146-minute film is a very loose adaptation of the 1903 Henry James novella, The Beast in the Jungle, about a man who never pursues the woman he loves because he fears a terrible fate will befall him — until he realizes, way too late, that he made his fate come true by never pursuing her. Bonello takes that initial conundrum, slices, dices and remixes it, then tosses it into a time machine.
- 9/3/2023
- by Jordan Mintzer
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
It does rather feel as if the universe — or at least the French film industry — is trying to tell us something when 2023 has turned up not one but two loose Gallic adaptations of Henry James’s “The Beast in the Jungle.” That 1903 novella was about a man, John Marcher, who fails to fully live his life because he’s seized by premonitions of catastrophe that never visibly come to pass. It feels glumly relevant in an age of climate change, artificial intelligence and other obvious but indefinite signals of human demise; perhaps we should count this highly specific cinematic mini-trend as another.
Spare a thought for director Patric Chiha’s “The Beast in the Jungle,” a Berlinale premiere earlier this year, with an already modest profile about to be dwarfed by Bertrand Bonello’s starrier, bigger-swinging “The Beast” — a gender-switched James riff in which said catastrophe is very much happening,...
Spare a thought for director Patric Chiha’s “The Beast in the Jungle,” a Berlinale premiere earlier this year, with an already modest profile about to be dwarfed by Bertrand Bonello’s starrier, bigger-swinging “The Beast” — a gender-switched James riff in which said catastrophe is very much happening,...
- 9/3/2023
- by Guy Lodge
- Variety Film + TV
One of the most buzzed-about international movies of the fall festival circuit, Bertrand Bonello’s “The Beast,” has already lured several distributors ahead of its world premiere in competition at Venice.
Represented by Kinology, the dystopian romance is headlined by Léa Seydoux (“Crimes of the Future”) and George MacKay (“1917”) as star-crossed lovers.
The gripping film, which marks Bonello’s most ambitious to date, is set in a near future where artificial intelligence reigns supreme and human emotions have become a threat. Gabrielle (Seydoux), a woman haunted by an irrational fear, is being told that she must purify her DNA to heal from past traumas in order to get a proper job. Through the process, Gabrielle revisits past lives and immerses herself in buried memories from 1910 and 2014, where she reunites with Louis (MacKay), her great love. While their bond has transcended lifetimes and eras, it’s also at the root of...
Represented by Kinology, the dystopian romance is headlined by Léa Seydoux (“Crimes of the Future”) and George MacKay (“1917”) as star-crossed lovers.
The gripping film, which marks Bonello’s most ambitious to date, is set in a near future where artificial intelligence reigns supreme and human emotions have become a threat. Gabrielle (Seydoux), a woman haunted by an irrational fear, is being told that she must purify her DNA to heal from past traumas in order to get a proper job. Through the process, Gabrielle revisits past lives and immerses herself in buried memories from 1910 and 2014, where she reunites with Louis (MacKay), her great love. While their bond has transcended lifetimes and eras, it’s also at the root of...
- 8/24/2023
- by Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
Taking the Scorsese wisdom of “more than 90 of directing a picture is the right casting” to heart, Ira Sachs’ radiantly sexual three-hander Passages couldn’t have assembled a finer trio of actors to explore modern love in all its splendor and messiness. Tomas (Franz Rogowski), a German filmmaker finishing up his latest shoot, is married to Martin (Ben Whishaw), but when Agathe (Adèle Exarchopoulos) comes into Tomas’ life, his world is torn asunder with a fiery passion. In his most mature and focused work to date, Sachs stays mostly centered on Tomas as his shifting heart gets pulled in different directions, Rogowski’s fierce magnetism transfixing the viewer even as his character’s behavior grows all the more erratic.
Inspired by the love triangle of Luchino Visconti’s final film The Innocent, Sachs doesn’t operate on a similarly operatic level, but both films do carry a shared sense of...
Inspired by the love triangle of Luchino Visconti’s final film The Innocent, Sachs doesn’t operate on a similarly operatic level, but both films do carry a shared sense of...
- 1/26/2023
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Every production faces unexpected obstructions that require creative solutions and conceptual rethinking. What was an unforeseen obstacle, crisis, or simply unpredictable event you had to respond to, and how did this event impact or cause you to rethink your film? For weeks before production, the film’s cinematographer Josée Deshaies and I begin a long process of creating a storyboard for the film. At some point, after we’ve established our own rhythm, we invite an illustrator—in this case, our production manager Marianne Germain’s brother Gabriel—to join us to translate our conversations into images. The work of the three of us then […]
The post “Nothing Is Harder To Shoot Than a Dinner Party” | Ira Sachs, Passages first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
The post “Nothing Is Harder To Shoot Than a Dinner Party” | Ira Sachs, Passages first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
- 1/26/2023
- by Filmmaker Staff
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
Every production faces unexpected obstructions that require creative solutions and conceptual rethinking. What was an unforeseen obstacle, crisis, or simply unpredictable event you had to respond to, and how did this event impact or cause you to rethink your film? For weeks before production, the film’s cinematographer Josée Deshaies and I begin a long process of creating a storyboard for the film. At some point, after we’ve established our own rhythm, we invite an illustrator—in this case, our production manager Marianne Germain’s brother Gabriel—to join us to translate our conversations into images. The work of the three of us then […]
The post “Nothing Is Harder To Shoot Than a Dinner Party” | Ira Sachs, Passages first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
The post “Nothing Is Harder To Shoot Than a Dinner Party” | Ira Sachs, Passages first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
- 1/26/2023
- by Filmmaker Staff
- Filmmaker Magazine-Director Interviews
When IndieWire conducted its annual survey of all the cameras used by cinematographers at the Sundance Film Festival, a striking trend quickly emerged: Over 75 percent of the DPs with narrative films at the festival utilized either the Arri Alexa Mini or its large format sibling, the Alexa Mini Lf, as their camera of choice. The Mini was introduced in 2015 as a compact version of the Alexa designed primarily for use on drones and gimbals, but its combination of a traditional Alexa sensor with increased mobility eventually led to its use as the A camera on Hollywood studio movies like “A Star is Born” and “Get Out” — and now, it seems, for a majority of cinematographers in the independent realm.
The Mini’s presence in independent film began to be felt at Sundance’s 2017 iteration, where festival favorites “Patti Cake” and “Thoroughbreds,” among others, were captured with the camera. “It was a very ambitious shoot,...
The Mini’s presence in independent film began to be felt at Sundance’s 2017 iteration, where festival favorites “Patti Cake” and “Thoroughbreds,” among others, were captured with the camera. “It was a very ambitious shoot,...
- 1/25/2023
- by Sarah Shachat and Jim Hemphill
- Indiewire
IndieWire has published its extensive survey regarding the cameras and lenses that shot 40 narrative films at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival. We took the data and organize it in order to find a segmentation and tendency, by also comparing it to the previous years. The Arri Alexa Mini remains the king. However, diversity is significantly reduced. No Red, no Blackmagic, and no mirrorless. That’s unfortunate.
Sundance 2023: Camera manufacturers’ chart Sundance Film Festival 2023
The Sundance Film Festival is an annual film festival organized by the Sundance Institute. It is the largest independent film festival in the United States, with more than 46,660 attending in 2016 (yeah – that’s insane). It takes place each January in Park City, Utah; Salt Lake City, Utah; and at the Sundance Resort, and acts as a showcase for new work from American and international independent filmmakers. The festival consists of competitive sections for American and international dramatic and documentary films,...
Sundance 2023: Camera manufacturers’ chart Sundance Film Festival 2023
The Sundance Film Festival is an annual film festival organized by the Sundance Institute. It is the largest independent film festival in the United States, with more than 46,660 attending in 2016 (yeah – that’s insane). It takes place each January in Park City, Utah; Salt Lake City, Utah; and at the Sundance Resort, and acts as a showcase for new work from American and international independent filmmakers. The festival consists of competitive sections for American and international dramatic and documentary films,...
- 1/23/2023
- by Yossy Mendelovich
- YMCinema
Passages
A project we thought might drop in ’22 is leading the gem offerings from the beginning of ’23 instead. American indie filmmaker Ira Sachs has been working with foreign coin on several projects now and in this case – he lassoed the trio Ben Whishaw, Franz Rogowski and Adèle Exarchopoulos from adjoined countries for what is Passages. Production took place in October of 2021. Saïd Ben Saïd and Michel Merkt produced the project. Josée Deshaies was the cinematographer here.
Gist: Co-written by Sachs and Mauricio Zacharias, set in contemporary Paris, German filmmaker Tomas (Franz Rogowski) embraces a love affair with a young woman named Agathe (Adèle Exarchopoulos), an impulse that blurs the lines which define his relationship with his husband, Martin (Ben Whishaw).…...
A project we thought might drop in ’22 is leading the gem offerings from the beginning of ’23 instead. American indie filmmaker Ira Sachs has been working with foreign coin on several projects now and in this case – he lassoed the trio Ben Whishaw, Franz Rogowski and Adèle Exarchopoulos from adjoined countries for what is Passages. Production took place in October of 2021. Saïd Ben Saïd and Michel Merkt produced the project. Josée Deshaies was the cinematographer here.
Gist: Co-written by Sachs and Mauricio Zacharias, set in contemporary Paris, German filmmaker Tomas (Franz Rogowski) embraces a love affair with a young woman named Agathe (Adèle Exarchopoulos), an impulse that blurs the lines which define his relationship with his husband, Martin (Ben Whishaw).…...
- 1/17/2023
- by Eric Lavallée
- IONCINEMA.com
Babysitter Trailer — Monia Chokri‘s Babysitter (2022) movie trailer has been released by Bac Films. The Babysitter trailer stars Nadia Tereszkiewicz, Monia Chokri, Patrick Hivon, Steve Laplante, and Hubert Proulx. Crew Catherine Léger wrote the screenplay for Babysitter. Emile Sornin created the music for the film. Josée Deshaies crafted the cinematography for the film. Plot Synopsis Babysitter‘s [...]
Continue reading: Babysitter (2022) Movie Trailer: A Misogynist’s New Hire Forces a Confrontation on His Sexual Anxieties...
Continue reading: Babysitter (2022) Movie Trailer: A Misogynist’s New Hire Forces a Confrontation on His Sexual Anxieties...
- 8/29/2022
- by Rollo Tomasi
- Film-Book
Monia Chokri’s “Babysitter” is The story of middle-aged sex pest Cédric (Patrick Hivon), his over-compensating feminist brother Jean-Michel (Steve Laplante), his depressed wife Nadine — a new mother, played by Chokri herself — and their mysterious, youthful nanny Amy (Nadia Tereszkiewicz) who seems intent on spicing up their love life, the film arrives with thunderous, uncompromising energy that only lets up when Chorkri decides to veer into the phantasmagorical.
Adapted by Catherine Léger from her play of the same name, the French-Canadian satire opens on the verge of an overdose of testosterone and adrenaline, with Cédric and his skeevy pals Carlos (Stéphane Moukarzel) and Tessier (Hubert Proulx) ogling pictures of women on their cellphones while cheering on a bloody cage-fight. With rapid-fire close-ups of breasts, butts, and the trio’s leery eyes, Chokri, cinematographer Josée Deshaies, and editor Pauline Gaillard yank the audience into an uncomfortably ravenous sensory overload with a sickly,...
Adapted by Catherine Léger from her play of the same name, the French-Canadian satire opens on the verge of an overdose of testosterone and adrenaline, with Cédric and his skeevy pals Carlos (Stéphane Moukarzel) and Tessier (Hubert Proulx) ogling pictures of women on their cellphones while cheering on a bloody cage-fight. With rapid-fire close-ups of breasts, butts, and the trio’s leery eyes, Chokri, cinematographer Josée Deshaies, and editor Pauline Gaillard yank the audience into an uncomfortably ravenous sensory overload with a sickly,...
- 1/27/2022
- by Siddhant Adlakha
- Indiewire
Top 100 Most Anticipated Foreign Films of 2021: #85. Joana Hadjithomas & Khalil Joriege’s Memory Box
Memory Box
It’s been over a decade since the last narrative feature from Lebanese directors Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joriege, but they’re back with fourth feature Memory Box (aka The Notebooks), produced by Abbout Productions’ Georges Schoucair and Haut Et Court’s Carole Scotta. Manal Issa (Nocturama), Rim Turki and Paloma Vauthier are among the cast in the production lensed by French-Canadian Josée Deshaies (of Bertrand Bonello’s House of Tolerance and Saint Laurent). Key figures of contemporary Lebanese cinema, Hadjithomas and Joriege have been working in documentary film for the past decade but are best remembered for their 2005 film A Perfect Day, which won the Fipresci prize out of Locarno and 2008’s I Want to See, which starred Catherine Deneuve and premiered in Un Certain Regard at Cannes.…...
It’s been over a decade since the last narrative feature from Lebanese directors Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joriege, but they’re back with fourth feature Memory Box (aka The Notebooks), produced by Abbout Productions’ Georges Schoucair and Haut Et Court’s Carole Scotta. Manal Issa (Nocturama), Rim Turki and Paloma Vauthier are among the cast in the production lensed by French-Canadian Josée Deshaies (of Bertrand Bonello’s House of Tolerance and Saint Laurent). Key figures of contemporary Lebanese cinema, Hadjithomas and Joriege have been working in documentary film for the past decade but are best remembered for their 2005 film A Perfect Day, which won the Fipresci prize out of Locarno and 2008’s I Want to See, which starred Catherine Deneuve and premiered in Un Certain Regard at Cannes.…...
- 1/2/2021
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
La femme de mon frère
French-Canadian actress Monia Chokri makes her directorial debut with My Brother’s Wife (La femme de mon frère). Produced by Nancy Grant and Sylvain Corbeil of Metafilms, the title was lensed by Bertrand Bonello’s favored Dp Josée Deshaies. The film stars a nice brochette of Quebecois thesps in Anne-Élisabeth Bossé, Patrick Hivon, Évelyne Brochu, Micheline Bernard, Magalie Lépine-Blondeau, Mani Soleymanlou and another Dolan staple, Anne Dorval.…...
French-Canadian actress Monia Chokri makes her directorial debut with My Brother’s Wife (La femme de mon frère). Produced by Nancy Grant and Sylvain Corbeil of Metafilms, the title was lensed by Bertrand Bonello’s favored Dp Josée Deshaies. The film stars a nice brochette of Quebecois thesps in Anne-Élisabeth Bossé, Patrick Hivon, Évelyne Brochu, Micheline Bernard, Magalie Lépine-Blondeau, Mani Soleymanlou and another Dolan staple, Anne Dorval.…...
- 1/3/2019
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
“People lack imagination.” This is how controversial Quebecois celebrity author Nelly Arcan (Mylène Mackay) accounts for the public’s prurient desire to know just how much of her bestselling novel, “Putain” (“Whore”), is informed by her experiences as a call girl in Anne Émond’s sympathetic-to-a-fault deconstructed biopic “Nelly.” But imagination is the one thing that Arcan herself does not lack. Love, understanding, self-control, calm, and ultimately, tragically, the will to keep on living — all these things are in short supply. But of imagination, if anything, Nelly had a surfeit.
So much so that, writer-director Émond posits, she imagined herself into a state of fragmented identity, inventing several different personas, each to protect or conceal another in a kind of psychological shell game that eventually became too exhausting and confusing to maintain. At the age of just 36, in 2009, Arcan hanged herself. This tragic end inevitably exerts a retrospective lunar pull on the film,...
So much so that, writer-director Émond posits, she imagined herself into a state of fragmented identity, inventing several different personas, each to protect or conceal another in a kind of psychological shell game that eventually became too exhausting and confusing to maintain. At the age of just 36, in 2009, Arcan hanged herself. This tragic end inevitably exerts a retrospective lunar pull on the film,...
- 9/5/2018
- by Jessica Kiang
- Variety Film + TV
As part of the Meet the Filmmakers series, A.W. A Portrait of Apichatpong Weerasethakul, is now screening on the Criterion Channel on FilmStruck. Directed by Connor Jessup, who will be most familiar to viewers as a cast member on Falling Skies and American Crime as well as his breakthrough lead performance in Stephen Dunn’s Closet Monster, he is also a filmmaker in his own right with two short films under his belt, Boy and Lira’s Forest. Jessup is influenced by the work of Thai filmmaker Apichatpong Weerasethakul, for whom his admiration runs very deep. A mid-length documentary that leans neither towards behind-the-scenes nor bio formats, A.W. is a leisurely and meditative piece that matches the filmmaker’s easygoing personality and patient rhythm. Made well ahead of the production of his next feature, Memoria, which will be set in Colombia and star longtime friend Tilda Swinton, Jessup...
- 3/20/2018
- by The Film Stage
- The Film Stage
Saint Laurent
Written by Bertrand Bonello and Thomas Bidegain
Directed by Bertrand Bonello
France, 2014
Great film direction can reflect great fashion. Unlike its direct competition, the earlier 2014 film Yves Saint Laurent, director and co-writer Bertrand Bonello portrays the fashion mogul with saturated palettes of grandeur in Saint Laurent. The prior film is directed by actor-turned-filmmaker Jalil Lespert, who,having less directorial experience than Bonello, doesn’t quite transform the character of Laurent with the vision and divinity as its successor. Where Lespert is almost literal, Bonello is instead deep and as complex as the character himself, picking apart every detail of the icon and the space he walked in.
Co-starring Léa Seydoux as muse Loulou de la Falaise and Louis Garrel as Jacques de Bascher, Saint Laurent’s lover, Bonello’s film poses, to varying effect, as a serious dramatic take on his life. Cinematographer Josée Deshaies enraptures the look...
Written by Bertrand Bonello and Thomas Bidegain
Directed by Bertrand Bonello
France, 2014
Great film direction can reflect great fashion. Unlike its direct competition, the earlier 2014 film Yves Saint Laurent, director and co-writer Bertrand Bonello portrays the fashion mogul with saturated palettes of grandeur in Saint Laurent. The prior film is directed by actor-turned-filmmaker Jalil Lespert, who,having less directorial experience than Bonello, doesn’t quite transform the character of Laurent with the vision and divinity as its successor. Where Lespert is almost literal, Bonello is instead deep and as complex as the character himself, picking apart every detail of the icon and the space he walked in.
Co-starring Léa Seydoux as muse Loulou de la Falaise and Louis Garrel as Jacques de Bascher, Saint Laurent’s lover, Bonello’s film poses, to varying effect, as a serious dramatic take on his life. Cinematographer Josée Deshaies enraptures the look...
- 10/15/2014
- by Christopher Clemente
- SoundOnSight
House of Tolerance (original French title L’Apollonide: Souvenirs de la maison close, 2011) is set in a Paris brothel during the twilight of 19th century/eve of 20th century. The story focuses entirely on twelve females aged around 16-30 living and working in the brothel as prostitutes. This is not a ‘knocking shop’, as Madame Marie-France (Noémie Lvovsky) is keen to impress, but a respectable establishment where elegant, if sometimes dangerous men go to meet elegant woman bedecked in semi-revealing Belle Époque fashions and fine silk lingerie.
Costume designer for House of Tolerance, Anaïs Romand (César award winner), approached the project with a view that true period authenticity can never be achieved; instead she aimed to “look for authenticity with the girls and the way they would live in their costumes”. Talking exclusively to Clothes on Film, Romand walks us through her visual interpretation of these characters and how she...
Costume designer for House of Tolerance, Anaïs Romand (César award winner), approached the project with a view that true period authenticity can never be achieved; instead she aimed to “look for authenticity with the girls and the way they would live in their costumes”. Talking exclusively to Clothes on Film, Romand walks us through her visual interpretation of these characters and how she...
- 9/7/2012
- by Chris Laverty
- Clothes on Film
Chicago – L’Apollonide, the Parisian brothel in Bertrand Bonello’s “House of Pleasures,” is one of the most vividly realized movie locations in recent memory. The voyeuristic allure of cinema fuses with the film’s painterly imagery to create a subtly surrealistic dreamscape within the establishment’s claustrophobic walls. The picture is seductive and repellant in about equal measure, but never short of hypnotic.
Though “Pleasures” (alternately titled “House of Tolerance”) is clearly the work of a filmmaker influenced by the “male gaze” represented in everything from Monet artwork to early silents, the film is resoundingly successful in its attempts to view life from the perspectives of the female prostitutes. As the young ladies externalize the kinky fantasies of their clients, Bonello allows the viewer to peer into each woman’s own thoughts and dreams, thus illuminating the strong-willed psyche within the submissive façade.
DVD Rating: 4.5/5.0
Consider the character of...
Though “Pleasures” (alternately titled “House of Tolerance”) is clearly the work of a filmmaker influenced by the “male gaze” represented in everything from Monet artwork to early silents, the film is resoundingly successful in its attempts to view life from the perspectives of the female prostitutes. As the young ladies externalize the kinky fantasies of their clients, Bonello allows the viewer to peer into each woman’s own thoughts and dreams, thus illuminating the strong-willed psyche within the submissive façade.
DVD Rating: 4.5/5.0
Consider the character of...
- 3/29/2012
- by adam@hollywoodchicago.com (Adam Fendelman)
- HollywoodChicago.com
Jean Dujardin, Missi Pyle, The Artist The Artist Wins, Jean Dujardin Loses: César Awards Best Film La guerre est déclarée / Declaration of War produced by Edouard Weil, directed by Valérie Donzelli Le Havre produced by Fabienne Vonier, directed by Aki Kaurismäki * The Artist produced by Thomas Langmann, directed by Michel Hazanavicius Intouchables / Untouchable produced by Denis Freyd, directed by Eric Toledano, Olivier Nakache L'exercice de l'État / The Minister produced by Nicolas Duval Adassovsky, Yann Zenou, Laurent Zeitoun, directed by Pierre Schöller Pater produced by Michel Seydoux, directed by Alain Cavalier Polisse produced by Alain Attal, directed by Maïwenn Best Foreign Film Drive (United States) directed by Nicolas Winding Refn Black Swan (United States) directed by Darren Aronofsky Incendies (Canada) directed by Denis Villeneuve Melancholia (Denmark / Sweden / France / Germany) directed by Lars von Trier * A Separation (Iran) directed by Asghar Farhadi The King's Speech (United Kingdom) directed by Tom Hooper Le...
- 2/25/2012
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
François Cluzet, Intouchables / Untouchable The 2012 César winners will be announced on February 24. The ceremony will be presided by Guillaume Canet; Antoine de Caunes will act as master of ceremonies. Best Film La guerre est déclarée / Declaration of War produced by Edouard Weil, directed by Valérie Donzelli Le Havre produced by Fabienne Vonier, directed by Aki Kaurismäki The Artist produced by Thomas Langmann, directed by Michel Hazanavicius Intouchables / Untouchable produced by Denis Freyd, directed by Eric Toledano, Olivier Nakache L'exercice de l'État / The Minister produced by Nicolas Duval Adassovsky, Yann Zenou, Laurent Zeitoun, directed by Pierre Schoeller Pater produced by Michel Seydoux, directed by Alain Cavalier Polisse produced by Alain Attal, directed by Maïwenn Best Foreign Film Drive (United States) directed by Nicolas Winding Refn Black Swan (United States) directed by Darren Aronofsky Incendies (Canada) directed by Denis Villeneuve Melancholia (Denmark / Sweden / France / Germany) directed by Lars von Trier A Separation...
- 2/21/2012
- by Steve Montgomery
- Alt Film Guide
Updated through 5/18.
"[E]veryone I know absolutely despised Bertrand Bonello's House of Tolerance, set in a Parisian brothel ca. 1899-1900, whereas I found myself rather touched by the film's oddly idealized portrait of a defunct community," writes Mike D'Angelo at the Av Club. "Granted, there are risible moments — you can't make a movie in which a hideously disfigured prostitute cries tears of milky semen without inspiring a lot of wisecracks on Twitter. But Bonello's compassion for these women feels genuine, and I appreciated the deft way that he juxtaposed their various assignations with the practical, menial details of their trade, as well as his pointedly anachronistic use of music…. I make no great claims for House of Tolerance, but the degree of intolerance among my colleagues has me befuddled."
Leslie Felperin in Variety: "Although there's heaps of nudity, disturbing violence, weirdness and a general air of bored erotic lassitude, all...
"[E]veryone I know absolutely despised Bertrand Bonello's House of Tolerance, set in a Parisian brothel ca. 1899-1900, whereas I found myself rather touched by the film's oddly idealized portrait of a defunct community," writes Mike D'Angelo at the Av Club. "Granted, there are risible moments — you can't make a movie in which a hideously disfigured prostitute cries tears of milky semen without inspiring a lot of wisecracks on Twitter. But Bonello's compassion for these women feels genuine, and I appreciated the deft way that he juxtaposed their various assignations with the practical, menial details of their trade, as well as his pointedly anachronistic use of music…. I make no great claims for House of Tolerance, but the degree of intolerance among my colleagues has me befuddled."
Leslie Felperin in Variety: "Although there's heaps of nudity, disturbing violence, weirdness and a general air of bored erotic lassitude, all...
- 5/18/2011
- MUBI
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