"Das Haus der schlafenden Schönen" is a German movie from 2006 that was written and directed by Vadim Glowna based on a Japanese novel. The movie runs for slightly under 100 minutes and is one of the later efforts from Glowna's career. He is of course deceased now and so is Maximilian Schell, who plays a supporting actor in here. But Angela Winkler who portrays the most important female character is still alive. as for Glowna, he is definitely more known for being an actor, but working on the script and behind the camera is not a rare occurrence for him either. With this cast, you probably think first this may be some older German film directed by the likes of Volker Schlöndorff or so, but no it isn't true. It is much more recent, but it certainly tries very hard to give the audience an artistic flavor that makes the film be about a lot more than the naked women in here. This is the story of a widower who gets an offer that he may sleep next to beautiful young women, who are apparently drugged or so, but it's never clear if sex is involved as well or if the women gave their consent in a somewhat less objectionable profession than prostitution. Then again, is the latter even objectionable? I guess it is for everybody else to decide.
But while I do not really believe this film made a big impact in terms of what it was trying to achieve, it is also not a failure because Glowna is honestly pretty good and at times elevates the mediocre material. And now I want to talk a bit about this being an award-winning film. If you take a look at the profile page here on IMDb, then you will see that the movie received a very dubious award by a feminist critics group apparently, in which they call it Glowna's desperate attempt to justify date rape and encourage people to have sex with unconscious women. it also becomes pretty personal in insulting Glowna and depicting him as a desperate and creepy old man who somewhat made this film to fulfill his own sexual desires and pleasures with young women. I strongly object to this description and it is an embarrassment that should not be covered by the idea of freedom of speech. This is clearly on the edge of defamation and I wish Glowna would have sued them. Regardless of the quality of this film, and it is certainly not great quality and for the most part a failed attempt at what could have been a pretty good film, there is no justification for a statement like the one issued by the Women Film Critics Circle Awards. They probably think they are right, but the only thing they should be is completely ashamed. As for "House of the Sleeping Beauties", I think the negative slightly outweighs the positive overall and I don't recommend checking it out. Thumbs-down.
But while I do not really believe this film made a big impact in terms of what it was trying to achieve, it is also not a failure because Glowna is honestly pretty good and at times elevates the mediocre material. And now I want to talk a bit about this being an award-winning film. If you take a look at the profile page here on IMDb, then you will see that the movie received a very dubious award by a feminist critics group apparently, in which they call it Glowna's desperate attempt to justify date rape and encourage people to have sex with unconscious women. it also becomes pretty personal in insulting Glowna and depicting him as a desperate and creepy old man who somewhat made this film to fulfill his own sexual desires and pleasures with young women. I strongly object to this description and it is an embarrassment that should not be covered by the idea of freedom of speech. This is clearly on the edge of defamation and I wish Glowna would have sued them. Regardless of the quality of this film, and it is certainly not great quality and for the most part a failed attempt at what could have been a pretty good film, there is no justification for a statement like the one issued by the Women Film Critics Circle Awards. They probably think they are right, but the only thing they should be is completely ashamed. As for "House of the Sleeping Beauties", I think the negative slightly outweighs the positive overall and I don't recommend checking it out. Thumbs-down.