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.
Though utterly depressing pretty much from start to finish, this is still a compelling film to watch as we follow a group of girls who are caught up in the most vicious of circles. They all work for "Madame Marie-France" (Noémie Lvovsky) in her slightly upmarket, but now fairly jaded, brothel. It's not just a "knocking shop" - the girls are expected to entertain their guests, to chat, sip Champagne and indulge their paymasters in anything they want. It's a dangerous way of life for these women. They are mired in debt - a debt their hostess ensures never shrinks, how ever much they earn. Some of their clients are benign, even generous - but most are there to treat them as disposable commodities. There's no star as such, each actor has a moment in the sun as we deal with abortion, addiction, violence and even the odd rather naive degree of optimism as "Clotilde" (Céline Sallette), "Julie" (Jasmine Trinca" and "Samira" (Hafsia Herzi) show us just what slavery with gossamer chains looks like. The pace might be a little slow at times, it is prone to a little repetition and the constant stream of (exclusively female) nudity does start to lose it's potency and look a little gratuitous after about an hour; but as a plausible observation of the hopeful amidst hopelessness at a time and in a city where nobody cared much for their plight, this is an engaging story that cleverly mixes up it's narrative with some poignant dialogue and strong performances.