Sex
for money can be so liberating. At
least, that is what some guys always say.
A similar position is staked out in a rather mature new film produced
and directed by women and featuring a largely female cast. Even if they adore Juliette Binoche, this is
not a film to watch with your parents.
However, a lot of people saw it with other people’s parents when it
screened at the 2012 Tribeca Film Festival.
Mere days later, Malgoska Szumowska’s Elles (trailer
here) has opened its conventional theatrical
run in New York.
Anne
is a wife, a mother, and a freelance writer.
Her latest story is a confidential profile of student prostitutes. The assignment came at an awkward period in
her marriage, around the same time she busted her husband for a certain kind of
net surfing. As she talks to these
confident young women, she becomes obsessed with their explicit stories. According to Charlotte and Alicja, their
approach to sex is healthier, because there is no hypocrisy. They make a comfortable living exploiting men’s
weaknesses of the flesh. Maybe so, but
liberation never looked so demeaning.
Films
exploring the jujitsu empowerment of prostitutes are nearly as old as the
profession itself. One obvious
comparison is Steven Soderbergh’s The Girlfriend Experience, which also screened at Tribeca three years ago. Yet, that film, starring an actual pornstar,
is far more circumspect in what it depicts.
In fact, there is no on-screen sex and only a spot of nudity is to be
seen here or there. It is the emotional
entanglements surrounding sex that concern GFE. In contrast, Elles jumps right into some of the more explicit scenes you will
see in a public theater. It was not
tagged with an NC-17 rating for no reason.
Frankly,
Soderbergh had the right idea. Even if Szumowska
had a razor sharp analysis of sexual politics to offer, it is hard to get past
some of the things she shows the audience.
However, the film’s feminist themes are pretty threadbare and the drama
is more frustrating than absorbing.
Normally
a bedrock of reliability, even Binche seems a little off here as the
journalist. Her reactions to everything often
seem wildly disproportionate to the circumstances at hand. Still, Anaïs Demoustier and Joanna Kulig both
bring smart, attractive presences to bear on this material. For the record, I briefly met Kulig on the
way to a post-screening Q&A and she seems like a lovely and engaging
person. I imagine the audience had a lot
of questions for her, but whether they had the guts to ask them is another
matter entirely. It is also worth
noting, the legendary Krystyna Janda (whose credits include Andrzej Wajda’s Man of Marble and Ryszard Bugajski’s The Interrogation) also co-stars in the
largely thankless role of Alicja’s mother.
