House of Pleasures

House of Pleasures (2011)

  • 79% of critics liked it
    (24 reviews)

  • 63% of users liked it
    (1,075 ratings)

In this lush, atmospheric look at the final days of an elegant, turn-of-the-century brothel, we go inside the cloistered walls of L'Apollonide to meet the Madam (Noemie Lvovsky), her elite clientele, and some dozen "girls" - veterans and newcomers, romantics and cynics, schemers and innocents.… More

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Unrated, 2 hr. 5 min.
Directed By
Bertrand Bonello
Written By
Bertrand Bonello
Genres
Drama
In Theaters
Nov 25, 2011 Limited
On DVD
Mar 13, 2012
Independent Pictures

Critic Reviews

  • Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle

    It's about forcing us to think about people we never would otherwise and seeing their struggles and humanity.

  • Jon Frosch, The Atlantic

    What gives the film its haunting pull, as well as its feminist undercurrent, is the filmmaker's palpable compassion for these women.

  • Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

    No one, male or female, has any fun, but the men behave as if they do. They are all half-stupefied by the languor in which they drown.

  • Ben Sachs, Chicago Reader

    It emphasizes setting over character and plot; and it casts a mood that's both eerie and entrancing.

  • Gary Goldstein, Los Angeles Times

    "Pleasures" becomes as enveloping - and sometimes as awkward - as one of the L'Apollonide ladies' heaving corsets.

Read all 19 critic reviews

Critic ratings and reviews powered by RottenTomatoes.com

Fresh (60% or more critics rated the movie positively)

Rotten (59% or fewer critics rated the movie positively)

Featured Audience Ratings

  • Carlos M


    A sad drama about a group of prostitutes in a Parisian brothel at the end of the 19th century. The narrative is always fluid, while the beautiful production design and cinematography explore quite efficiently the gloom and the romantic view of being a woman submissive to men and their… More

  • Walter M


    When making a movie that argues against prostitution, it is best not to make it sound like every other dreary profession which was the central problem with Lizzie Borden's "Working Girls." Also set in an upscale brothel, "House of Pleasure," which… More

  • Alec B


    I like that the film isn't about prostitution in the conventional pop culture sense (meaning that its not a bunch of heart of gold hookers who live in a party house). Director Bertrand Bonello is more interested in presenting the environment in a more matter of fact manner. The… More

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