I am only giving this movie a 1 for the great cast, though I can't imagine what any of them were thinking. This movie was horrible

it is the rare 'crazy' movie that actually has something to say.

I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

It's 1899 Paris. Marie-France Dallaire is the madame of the brothel L'Apollonide. As the months roll by, she is faced with debilitating rent increase from the landlord. Clotilde has been there for 12 years since she was 16. Julie is nicknamed Caca for her specialty. She dreams of going with her married customer Maurice. Léa mails away gifts of her pubic hair. Pauline Deshaies is a 15 year old who writes a letter applying for a job. The movie open with the Jewess Madeleine who has a prophetic dream. She is cut horribly by a customer. These and the other girls deal with the many issues as the brothel threatens to close.I'm not sure if it's a deliberate idea from filmmaker Bertrand Bonello. There is a matter-of-factness to these women. I like to have more history to these interesting characters. It would be great to follow fewer of them and dig deeper into their lives. The Joker face is compelling visually. The tone is one of empty sadness. There isn't really any tension. The rent issue isn't that dramatic. I do have a big problem with the split screen scenes. There remind me of surveillance video and that takes me out of the movie.

The titling is written in an unimaginative Arial-type font, a mood that doesn't change until two hours have passed away.If this is meant as a metaphor of a brothel, then the movie succeeded.A parade of sumptuous draperies, robes, champagne, panthers and naked bodies isn't enough to make a good movie - or at least shot as this one is. They are not able to express by themselves ideas or a captivating plot.The only positive aspect is the anachronistic use of modern music for a story set at the end of the 19th century. (Something seen in a much better movie, with some visual and spatial similarities, Sofia Coppola's Marie Antoinette.)

This film is physically gorgeous and the content is hideous. Some reviews here have said that the nudity of the women is "boring" (because it is not used to provoke the audience's sexual response, but rather to reinforce the women's place as "objects"?) and another found the film soporific because of its slow pace, repeated images, and lack of "action." What was needed? A carriage chase (since car chases wouldn't have been possible), or perhaps a daring robbery? In fact,the slow pace of the film reiterates the slow death of the women. The fact that some of the reviewers complain that the film doesn't contextualize the story enough only speaks to our general lack of education about history or the world beyond our own i-pods and pads. Only in the 20th century do most women begin to achieve "rights" and freedoms (and at great cost). And that century is only beginning at the end of this film. For that matter, the film's ending--in contemporary Paris at the historic site of the brothel--implies that those rights and freedoms are easily erased for some.For those who want more action (slashing someone's face is apparently not enough), this film will disappoint. For anyone who is interested in the history of the era and this aspect of Parisian (and European) life, it's a must see. All the slow scenes in the brothel with "gentlemen" clients and prostitutes are framed during the same period as the Dreyfus case, the beginning of the decline of French power and prestige. This film shows the darker side of much that is revealed in Proust's work (which is, after all, rather dark itself). It is definitely a disturbing film, but worth seeing.The women actors works wonderfully together, and the production values are impressive.

L'Apollonide Again the French film gives us images that will last forever in our memory. The director Bertrand Bonelle supported by a cast of first category (Céline Sallette, Alice Barnole and Noémie Lvovsky) can bring the characters closer all the sadness and rare moments of joy of prostitutes living in a French brothel in the late nineteenth century. Using the metaphorical language of colors used by painters of the classic era of Peter Paul Rubens what the film gives us is several times (especially one in which the screen splits and some scenes are momentarily frozen) of pure visual delight. What else comes to our notice is the character (Madeleine, "the Jew" who has his face disfigured by a stupid frequenter of the house of tolerance that is intended to be the owner of that "lump of flesh" designed used only for their selfish and despicable pleasure , undergoes the humiliation of being tied up in bed, taken by the illusion that eventually will be sought in marriage, without realizing what is before one be worse than a an irrational animal. At times it is impossible not to compare this film with another: Belle DE Jour. Occurs in this case the character played by Catherine Deneuve seeks the house of Madame, is to see his true sexuality while in L'Apollonide, the characters work to get rid of slavery being laundresses, maids. Vibrant film that will be forever in the minds of those who attend. On a scale of 1 to 10, I give 9 (excellent)