Elles (2012)
Directed by Malgorzata Szumowska

Film Review

In her attempt to shed light on the motivations of present day prostitutes, Polish filmmaker Malgorzata Szumowska merely succeeds in bringing a thin veneer of respectability to what is little more than soft core porn exploitation flick.  Far from presenting something new and insightful, Elles is content to rehash the old clichés, sidestep the real concerns about today's sex trade (in particular the way in which it can imprison rather than empower women) and present a ludicrously romanticised view of the world's oldest profession.

With its graphic sex scenes (which leave nothing to the imagination) the film will doubtless appeal to intellectuals with a taste for low grade porn, but Szumowska's thesis is too shallow, too rose-tinted and too complacent to hold any real interest for anyone seeking a more informed view of the subject.  The captivating performances from Juliette Binoche (looking barely a day older than she was in Les Amants du Pont-Neuf) and Anaïs Demoustier (a young actress with staggering potential) do not make up for the film's lack of substance nor its breathtaking naivety.  If Elles is provocative, it is not so much because of what it says (which is mostly a stack of bourgeois pro-feminist platitudes), but rather for what it fails to say, which is anything of real significance.

Film Synopsis

As she prepares a dinner party for her husband, Anne, a writer on a leading women's magazine, is struggling to complete an article on student prostitution.  In the course of her research, Anne has interviewed two young students, Alicja and Charlotte, who agreed to talk openly about their experiences as prostitutes.  Alicja is the most out-going of the two women, a Polish immigrant who enjoys the freedom her employment as a sex worker gives her.  Most of her clients are bored husbands but she has a good income, enjoys her work and admits she may have become addicted to it.

By contrast, Charlotte is less comfortable with her decision to become a prostitute.  She keeps this from both her family, who harbour the misapprehension that she has a 'normal' job, and her boyfriend, who suspects she may be having an affair with another man.  Charlotte finds that many of her clients make her their confidante, which wasn't what she had expected.  Anne is struck by the fact that neither of the two women appears to have any regrets about being prostitutes - they both seem to regard it as a job like any other.  The interviews have a profound effect on the writer and she begins to look on her relationship with her husband in a whole new light...