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House of Pleasures
L'Apollonide, souvenirs de la maison close
2011 126 min France 18+
★6.9
Drama
Director: Bertrand Bonello
Trailers
Description
The dawn of the 20th century: L’Apollonide, a luxurious and traditional brothel in Paris, is living its last days. In this closed world, where some men fall in love and others become viciously harmful, the women share their secrets, their fears, their joys and their pains.
US Gross:
$19,327
Starring
Noémie Lvovsky
Actor
Hafsia Herzi
Actor
Céline Sallette
Actor
Awards
César Awards 2012
— Best Costume Design
Cannes Film Festival 2011
— Palme d'Or
César Awards 2012
— Best Supporting Actress
César Awards 2012
— Most Promising Actress
César Awards 2012
— Best Cinematography
César Awards 2012
— Best Production Design
César Awards 2012
— Best Sound
César Awards 2012
— Best Original Score
Key opinion
L'Apollonide is an aesthetically refined, atmospheric period drama that eschews conventional plotting in favor of a hypnotic, sensory exploration of life inside a 19th-century Parisian brothel. While praised by many for its visual artistry and poignant character portraits, the film is polarizing due to its slow, static pace and its detached, stylistic approach to the themes of entrapment and decay.
| Production | The production design, including the intricate costumes and period-accurate interiors, is widely lauded as visually exquisite and essential to the film's immersive atmosphere. | |
| Acting | The ensemble of actresses provides vivid, emotive performances that effectively ground the film's bleak and restrictive setting. | |
| Pacing | The film's pacing is deeply divisive; some viewers find the slow, hypnotic, and meditative tempo essential to the mood, while others perceive it as boring, static, and lacking in dramatic momentum. | |
| Screenplay | Critics are split on the screenplay's narrative structure, with some valuing the impressionistic, plotless drift as a stylistic choice and others criticizing it as disjointed, shallow, and lacking meaningful development. | |
| Score | The inclusion of modern musical choices against a 19th-century setting is controversial, with some viewing it as an effective, jarring mirror for the women’s emotional state, while others find it distracting or poorly matched. | |
| Direction | The directorial choice to treat sex as a detached aesthetic object rather than an act of passion leaves many viewers feeling disconnected and unengaged with the characters' supposed desires. |