Movies about prostitutes
- Thread starter The Bear
- Start date
Nights of Cabiria directed by Federico Fellini
A waifish prostitute wanders the streets of Rome looking for true love but finds only heartbreak.
A waifish prostitute wanders the streets of Rome looking for true love but finds only heartbreak.
Leaving Las Vegas starring Nicolas Cage and Elisabeth Shue a so weirdly-intense romance, I loved it:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ke6kU0rD8JgHowever, if I were in Shue's shoes, I would never date a client like the Nicolas Cage character. My clients are mostly drunken traders, which is good for business, but falling in love for them is just impossible!
Another classic from Godard's salad days that focuses specifically on prostitution is Vivre sa vie with the divine Anna Karina. It's been a while since I last saw it so can't provide any detail. I think the usual English translation of the title is something like My Life to Live
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dfZQpLSuxKE&feature=youtu.be
"A perfect film... one of the most extraordinary, beautiful, and original works of art that I know of."
-Susan Sontag
Goddard has so many caracters that I just want to push in his films that I hated him when I was young. But Rhomer, also of the nouvelle vague, has as many and I love his films. Go figure. I guess it's time I revisit Goddard.
jesus of Nazareth with mary Magdalene. the saint patroness of women and courtesans.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VgLehjvgyOQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VgLehjvgyOQ
The French romantic comedy Hors de Prix/Priceless (2006) with Audrey Tautou and Gad Elmaleh... many clichés, but pretty cute and funny
Hello Clara,
I have watched priceless a couple of times or so. It is a very nice romantic comedy even if french are not good in that department. I see it more like a sugar daddy, sugar mommy movie though.
Cheers.
Mon Homme. (Bertrand Blier, 1996)
Anouk Grinberg plays an independent hooker who picks up clients in a hotel lounge. This an unconventional and humourous farce that is very interesting and I would recommend it although it is not a masterpiece and the story falls apart a bit about halfway through. The main character has a strong personality, likes sex and likes her work and gets on well with her clients. She is always in charge of the situation until she finds a bum passed out in the stairwell of her apartment building. She feels sorry for him and invites him in for a meal and to sleep on the floor. But she feels an erotic attraction to him and undresses for him and invites him to have sex with her. The ensuing sex scene is very hot indeed! He turns out to be a dominating lover who knows what he likes...it is the first time in the movie that the man is in control in bed and she falls head over heels in love with him. Although she is a successful pro who makes good money and so has no need of a pimp, she asks him to become her pimp and grants him full control over herself and her money. He becomes transformed from a scruffy vagrant into a suave womanizer. Unbeknownst to her he starts bedding a series of sexy women and starts trying to pimp them as well. Up to this point the film is fascinating and actually very credible in a rather disturbing way. No wonder American feminist film critics HATE this movie....
From this point on the plot wanders and the movie loses some of its zip but I would still recommend it.
Anouk Grinberg plays an independent hooker who picks up clients in a hotel lounge. This an unconventional and humourous farce that is very interesting and I would recommend it although it is not a masterpiece and the story falls apart a bit about halfway through. The main character has a strong personality, likes sex and likes her work and gets on well with her clients. She is always in charge of the situation until she finds a bum passed out in the stairwell of her apartment building. She feels sorry for him and invites him in for a meal and to sleep on the floor. But she feels an erotic attraction to him and undresses for him and invites him to have sex with her. The ensuing sex scene is very hot indeed! He turns out to be a dominating lover who knows what he likes...it is the first time in the movie that the man is in control in bed and she falls head over heels in love with him. Although she is a successful pro who makes good money and so has no need of a pimp, she asks him to become her pimp and grants him full control over herself and her money. He becomes transformed from a scruffy vagrant into a suave womanizer. Unbeknownst to her he starts bedding a series of sexy women and starts trying to pimp them as well. Up to this point the film is fascinating and actually very credible in a rather disturbing way. No wonder American feminist film critics HATE this movie....
From this point on the plot wanders and the movie loses some of its zip but I would still recommend it.
When an Oscar winning director subsequently makes a comedy so black that there's a walk-out at a critics screening it needs to be moved to the top of the to see list
I find much to admire about the star of this 2015 movie.
Much Loved starring Loubna Abidar
A group of women in Morocco make a living as prostitutes in a culture that is very unforgiving toward women in that profession.
According to this article in the NY Times, the culture of Morocco seems to be rather unforgiving even of an actress playing the role of a prostitute.
Loubna Abidar, Moroccan Actress, Finds Fame Tinged With Fury
The Saturday Profile
By AIDA ALAMI FEB. 12, 2016
nyt.com
PARIS — THE first indication the actress Loubna Abidar had that her life was about to change was on the flight home to Morocco after the premiere of the movie “Much Loved,” in which she plays a prostitute. She was shocked when a flight attendant told her she was “a disgrace for Morocco and Moroccan women.”
Ten months later, Ms. Abidar, 30, is still a celebrity in her homeland, albeit an infamous one who is now in exile. She has received hundreds of hate messages and threats on social media. She is also poised to earn France’s top honor in film — a César — this month.
“People are scared of the truth,” she said, referring to the angry reactions in Morocco to “Much Loved,” which depicts the crude realities of prostitution there. “We shouldn’t be a country that is scared of art. I want the Moroccan woman to wake up.”
Ms. Abidar’s troubles began in May when “Much Loved,” directed by Nabil Ayouch, had its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival. Until then, Ms. Abidar had appeared only in small theater roles, television programs and a couple of unremarkable feature films. By the time she boarded that flight home to Morocco, a trailer had gained traction on the Internet.
The trailer and other video excerpts, which generated hundreds of thousands of views on YouTube, showed Ms. Abidar and three other actors portraying prostitutes partying, cursing and behaving lewdly with clients in Marrakesh. Many accused the movie of perpetuating a cliché that hurts the image of Moroccan women in general.
But those clips gave viewers entirely the wrong message, Ms. Abidar said. “This film isn’t just about prostitution,” she said. “It’s a portrait of four women, and it talks about many of the ills of our country, like corruption and the fact that tourists sexually exploit our women and children.”
The Communication Ministry of Morocco was swift to react to the movie’s premiere. It banned the film, saying that it undermined “the moral values and dignity of Moroccan women as well as the image of Morocco.”
Ms. Abidar said she thought the anger would pass. She stayed in Morocco despite the threats, wearing a niqab — a head scarf that covers the face and leaves an opening for the eyes — in an effort to avoid being recognized. In November, though, she let her guard down. Thinking she would be safe after winning prizes for best actress at film festivals in Namur, Belgium, and in Angoulême, France, she ventured out uncovered. Three drunken men brutally attacked her, she said, and she backed up the claim by posting a video showing heavy bruising on her face.
“All I did wrong was star in a movie you haven’t even seen,” she says in the video.
Ms. Abidar is trying to leave the bad memories behind. She has moved to France, where she says she feels safe, and she will be joined by her 6-year-old daughter after the school year ends in Marrakesh.
When a friend called with the news that she had been nominated for a César — along with Catherine Deneuve, Isabelle Huppert and other French celebrities — she thought it was a prank. No Moroccan woman had ever received even a nomination for the prize.
“This nomination gave me energy and made me self-confident,” Ms. Abidar said during a recent interview at the Pavillon de la Reine bar in the Marais neighborhood of Paris. Born into a modest family in the Kasbah, a working-class neighborhood in the old city of Marrakesh, Ms. Abidar moved to Paris at the age of 17 after marrying an older Frenchman. She divorced a few years later, then married a Brazilian and moved near the coastal city of Recife, Brazil. She had a daughter, Luna Estrella, before splitting with her second husband and moving back to Morocco, where she began classes in acting.
Ms. Abidar describes herself as a feminist. Being a star in a controversial sex-themed film is not easy in a conservative Muslim society like Morocco’s. She says she has always been engaged in defending women’s rights, and traces some of that to her early experiences with the prostitutes she so expertly portrays in the movie.
Ms. Abidar said that the women were a part of the society she grew up in, and that she mixed with them at the hammams, or bathhouses, where Moroccan women relax, or at hair salons.
“I grew up in a poor neighborhood, and these women were always so nice and generous,” she said.
WHEN she heard that Mr. Ayouch was working on “Much Loved,” she wanted to be a part of it. Knowing that the director always cast nonprofessional actors in the leading roles, she tried to pass herself off as a prostitute but eventually came clean and admitted she had some experience as an actress. Mr. Ayouch first refused to let her be in the film, so he hired her as a consultant, using her knowledge of the streets to coach the women he chose and to help with the dialogue to make it sound authentic.
“Nabil doesn’t know the street talk, the crude language,” she says. “So he consulted me a lot. I had like five or six jobs at the same time on the set.”
For eight months, she helped out. But as filming was about to get started, the director still had not found someone to play Noha, the main character. Eventually, he gave in and assigned her the part.
“Loubna has an exceptional strength of character,” Mr. Ayouch said in an interview. “She’s a fighter, a combatant. With her, I felt that I could lead the character of Noha where I wanted to. In areas of truth and crude naturalism, without any concession.”
AS Noha, Ms. Abidar, who is quite small and slender, plays a strong, confident woman who looks after her friends. In reality, she looks a lot younger and appears almost fragile.
She has received a lot of support in France from journalists and those in the film industry. But some worry that with the rise of Islamophobia in the country, some might try to capitalize on her plight to further stigmatize Muslims.
“Right now, it is the perfect time for her to be in France,” said Zakia Salime, an associate professor of sociology at Rutgers University and the author of “Between Feminism and Islam: Human Rights and Sharia Law in Morocco.”
“She will speak on behalf of all Muslim women, and she’s going to become the symbol of women who have been saved by the West from patriarchy,” she added, with some sarcasm.
For a while, Ms. Abidar and Mr. Ayouch were facing criminal charges in Morocco for “inciting to debauchery,” but a judge recently dismissed the case. As strong-minded as ever, Ms. Abidar remains determined to continue living freely and not to make concessions to please other Moroccans. She is releasing a book about her experience in France in May that she hopes will inspire women to take on similar fights against attempts to suppress art and speech.
“They wanted to shut me up,” she said. “They wanted to scare me. But I will never keep quiet.”
Much Loved starring Loubna Abidar
A group of women in Morocco make a living as prostitutes in a culture that is very unforgiving toward women in that profession.
According to this article in the NY Times, the culture of Morocco seems to be rather unforgiving even of an actress playing the role of a prostitute.
Loubna Abidar, Moroccan Actress, Finds Fame Tinged With Fury
The Saturday Profile
By AIDA ALAMI FEB. 12, 2016
nyt.com
PARIS — THE first indication the actress Loubna Abidar had that her life was about to change was on the flight home to Morocco after the premiere of the movie “Much Loved,” in which she plays a prostitute. She was shocked when a flight attendant told her she was “a disgrace for Morocco and Moroccan women.”
Ten months later, Ms. Abidar, 30, is still a celebrity in her homeland, albeit an infamous one who is now in exile. She has received hundreds of hate messages and threats on social media. She is also poised to earn France’s top honor in film — a César — this month.
“People are scared of the truth,” she said, referring to the angry reactions in Morocco to “Much Loved,” which depicts the crude realities of prostitution there. “We shouldn’t be a country that is scared of art. I want the Moroccan woman to wake up.”
Ms. Abidar’s troubles began in May when “Much Loved,” directed by Nabil Ayouch, had its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival. Until then, Ms. Abidar had appeared only in small theater roles, television programs and a couple of unremarkable feature films. By the time she boarded that flight home to Morocco, a trailer had gained traction on the Internet.
The trailer and other video excerpts, which generated hundreds of thousands of views on YouTube, showed Ms. Abidar and three other actors portraying prostitutes partying, cursing and behaving lewdly with clients in Marrakesh. Many accused the movie of perpetuating a cliché that hurts the image of Moroccan women in general.
But those clips gave viewers entirely the wrong message, Ms. Abidar said. “This film isn’t just about prostitution,” she said. “It’s a portrait of four women, and it talks about many of the ills of our country, like corruption and the fact that tourists sexually exploit our women and children.”
The Communication Ministry of Morocco was swift to react to the movie’s premiere. It banned the film, saying that it undermined “the moral values and dignity of Moroccan women as well as the image of Morocco.”
Ms. Abidar said she thought the anger would pass. She stayed in Morocco despite the threats, wearing a niqab — a head scarf that covers the face and leaves an opening for the eyes — in an effort to avoid being recognized. In November, though, she let her guard down. Thinking she would be safe after winning prizes for best actress at film festivals in Namur, Belgium, and in Angoulême, France, she ventured out uncovered. Three drunken men brutally attacked her, she said, and she backed up the claim by posting a video showing heavy bruising on her face.
“All I did wrong was star in a movie you haven’t even seen,” she says in the video.
Ms. Abidar is trying to leave the bad memories behind. She has moved to France, where she says she feels safe, and she will be joined by her 6-year-old daughter after the school year ends in Marrakesh.
When a friend called with the news that she had been nominated for a César — along with Catherine Deneuve, Isabelle Huppert and other French celebrities — she thought it was a prank. No Moroccan woman had ever received even a nomination for the prize.
“This nomination gave me energy and made me self-confident,” Ms. Abidar said during a recent interview at the Pavillon de la Reine bar in the Marais neighborhood of Paris. Born into a modest family in the Kasbah, a working-class neighborhood in the old city of Marrakesh, Ms. Abidar moved to Paris at the age of 17 after marrying an older Frenchman. She divorced a few years later, then married a Brazilian and moved near the coastal city of Recife, Brazil. She had a daughter, Luna Estrella, before splitting with her second husband and moving back to Morocco, where she began classes in acting.
Ms. Abidar describes herself as a feminist. Being a star in a controversial sex-themed film is not easy in a conservative Muslim society like Morocco’s. She says she has always been engaged in defending women’s rights, and traces some of that to her early experiences with the prostitutes she so expertly portrays in the movie.
Ms. Abidar said that the women were a part of the society she grew up in, and that she mixed with them at the hammams, or bathhouses, where Moroccan women relax, or at hair salons.
“I grew up in a poor neighborhood, and these women were always so nice and generous,” she said.
WHEN she heard that Mr. Ayouch was working on “Much Loved,” she wanted to be a part of it. Knowing that the director always cast nonprofessional actors in the leading roles, she tried to pass herself off as a prostitute but eventually came clean and admitted she had some experience as an actress. Mr. Ayouch first refused to let her be in the film, so he hired her as a consultant, using her knowledge of the streets to coach the women he chose and to help with the dialogue to make it sound authentic.
“Nabil doesn’t know the street talk, the crude language,” she says. “So he consulted me a lot. I had like five or six jobs at the same time on the set.”
For eight months, she helped out. But as filming was about to get started, the director still had not found someone to play Noha, the main character. Eventually, he gave in and assigned her the part.
“Loubna has an exceptional strength of character,” Mr. Ayouch said in an interview. “She’s a fighter, a combatant. With her, I felt that I could lead the character of Noha where I wanted to. In areas of truth and crude naturalism, without any concession.”
AS Noha, Ms. Abidar, who is quite small and slender, plays a strong, confident woman who looks after her friends. In reality, she looks a lot younger and appears almost fragile.
She has received a lot of support in France from journalists and those in the film industry. But some worry that with the rise of Islamophobia in the country, some might try to capitalize on her plight to further stigmatize Muslims.
“Right now, it is the perfect time for her to be in France,” said Zakia Salime, an associate professor of sociology at Rutgers University and the author of “Between Feminism and Islam: Human Rights and Sharia Law in Morocco.”
“She will speak on behalf of all Muslim women, and she’s going to become the symbol of women who have been saved by the West from patriarchy,” she added, with some sarcasm.
For a while, Ms. Abidar and Mr. Ayouch were facing criminal charges in Morocco for “inciting to debauchery,” but a judge recently dismissed the case. As strong-minded as ever, Ms. Abidar remains determined to continue living freely and not to make concessions to please other Moroccans. She is releasing a book about her experience in France in May that she hopes will inspire women to take on similar fights against attempts to suppress art and speech.
“They wanted to shut me up,” she said. “They wanted to scare me. But I will never keep quiet.”
I watched this film last night. I found it to be a fascinating, deeply intellectual film, and the prostitution of the main character is somewhat symbolic of the prostitution of large companies through crass commercialization. The film is more a statement on crass consumerism than it is on prostitution in contemporary society or western culture or the Paris of 1966.
A few interesting things about the film worth commenting on: first, as a philosophy minor in college, I can appreciate the deep influence of the work of French philosopher Jean Paul Sartre on Godard. I did a term paper on the work of Sartre in college. It's worth noting that when this film was made in 1966, it was 2 years after Sartre was awarded (and refused) the Nobel Prize in Literature. The refusal of that prize was for the very reasons given by the narrator of the film. Much like Sartre refusing his Nobel Prize, when Godard was awarded an honorary Academy Award in 2010, he refused to accept it. "Writers should not allow themselves to be turned into institutions", Sartre said.
Second, it's interesting that the narrator (which could have been Sartre) speaks in a conspiratorial whisper throughout the movie. I don't speak French and had to follow the dialogue in English subtitles, but this technique of narration was something I had never seen or heard. It was interesting, in that Godard was having the narrator speak in a tone of what would normally be perceived as conspiracy.
Third, in reading about the background of the movie, I read that Godard had a public debate around that time with a government official about one of the central issues of the movie: crass commercialism/consumerism.
Fourth, the extended scene in which a cup of coffee is analyzed is one of the most brilliant pieces of art cinema I have ever seen.
Fifth, regarding the portrayal of the prostitution profession: I don't know whether such incalls existed in 1966 Paris, with a daycare room where the "pimp" watches over young children. I found it funny how the pimp kept sticking his head in the rooms to let the girls know how much time was left. If someone ever pulled that shit with me at an incall or MP, I would never go there again. It does remind me of a US strip club with a private area where the bouncer would keep peeking in to see what was going on, which always bothered me, because it was kind of dark and what if he didn't see what he thought he did?
Sixth, dead on about your description of the American character, played by Parisian Raoul Levy, a filmmaker/proudcer/actor who sadly committed suicide in 1966 shortly after this film was made. No Americans who grew up in Arkansas talk like that. I think that John Cassavetes, who at that time was an up and coming American filmmaker, would have been perfect for that part. However since the film was made in French with French actors, I suppose it is no different than an American actor playing a Frenchmen.
Final thought: I have a general fascination with any film made in the 1960s while the Beatles were still together. I am old enough to have lived in this decade and have some vague memories of it as a child. The movie brought back many memories as far as cars, and symbols of the commercialism at that time. Generally any foreign or domestic film made from 1965 to 1970 fascinates me, as it was an interesting time in American and world history. I feel like in that decade (the 1960s) more changed from what was our artistic, cultural, political and social legacy as a human race than any decade before or since.
I believe the voiceover in "Deux ou trois choses" was provided by Godard himself. I consider all his films from "Breathless" to "Weekend" to be masterpieces. Maybe the greatest "winning streak" in film history. Personal favourites include "Band à Part", "Pierrot le Fou", "Masculin feminin", and "Weekend". But as I say they are all worth seeing and then seeing again and again...
I thought it was Godard as well during the movie, and that is what I read. I think he was speaking in his voice as an admirer of Sartre. It all seemed very Sartrean to me. Or an application of that philosophy.
I'd recommend the naked civil servant. You can find it on YouTube and it gives a very different perspective. It's a true story about Quinton crisp living as a male prostitute and self proclaimed fairy in the 1920s onward.
https://youtu.be/7ymbgf0MDE8
https://youtu.be/7ymbgf0MDE8
I have been watching the mid 2000s TV series "Deadwood" which is based on actual historical figures including Al Swearengen, owner of the Gem Saloon, a famous saloon and brothel in Deadwood, South Dakota. At one point there is an outbreak of smallpox in the Deadwood camp, and one of Al's girls comes down with symptoms of the virus. In a fairly famous scene, Al says to her , "I think you ought to stick to hand jobs for a day or two."
Tonight at 8pm on Turner Classic Movies (TCM). Not a great movie, but overlooked in the genre of "movies about prostitutes."
Cinderella Liberty (1973)
James Caan, Marsh Mason
A lonely Navy sailor falls in love with a hooker and becomes a surrogate father figure for her son during an extended liberty due to his service records being lost.
Cinderella Liberty (1973)
James Caan, Marsh Mason
A lonely Navy sailor falls in love with a hooker and becomes a surrogate father figure for her son during an extended liberty due to his service records being lost.
Interesting discusion above on Godard and his use of prostitution as a metaphor for life under capitalism/consumerism: that is, we're all "whores" of one kind or another. The struggle is to maintain an identity that is uniquely our own and separate from what this world would impose upon us.
One his best films, Vivre sa vie, opens with a quotation from Montaigne (“it is necessary to lend oneself to others and give oneself to one’s self,"), an idea that that the rest of the film gives flesh to in the tragic character of Nana. Tragic, in that it easily said, not so easily done.
https://youtu.be/2n_r_5RXobM
Lana Del Rey's more contemporary ten-minute video for "Ride" demonstrates much the same thing (to paraphrase: "I belong to no one and every one,") something an SP quoted back to me recently. The self-reflective, melancholy romanticism that she invokes is not so very far from Nana and other Godard prostitute-characters.
https://youtu.be/Py_-3di1yx0
One his best films, Vivre sa vie, opens with a quotation from Montaigne (“it is necessary to lend oneself to others and give oneself to one’s self,"), an idea that that the rest of the film gives flesh to in the tragic character of Nana. Tragic, in that it easily said, not so easily done.
https://youtu.be/2n_r_5RXobM
Lana Del Rey's more contemporary ten-minute video for "Ride" demonstrates much the same thing (to paraphrase: "I belong to no one and every one,") something an SP quoted back to me recently. The self-reflective, melancholy romanticism that she invokes is not so very far from Nana and other Godard prostitute-characters.
https://youtu.be/Py_-3di1yx0
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