House of Pleasures (L'Apollonide: Souvenirs de la maison close) (2011)

This slice of life film features Parisian courtesans in the turn of the century on the eve of the Great War.

Just like its ideal doublebill partner Flowers of Shanghai, the film obsesses over the courtly dance between the girls and their patrons, the complex social niceties that created their social world and papered over the ugliness of their lives.

Read my full review at Fridae, first published on 25 April 2012.