Directed by Bertrand Bonello • 2011 • France
Starring Noémie Lvovsky, Hafsia Herzi, Céline Sallette

Bertrand Bonello offers a highly atmospheric look at the final days of a brothel at the turn of the twentieth century. Within L’Apollonide’s walls, Bonello tracks the lives of the madam (Noemie Lvovsky) and close to a dozen girls, including Madeleine (Alice Barnole) who is horribly disfigured by a client and becomes known as “the woman who laughs”; Clotilde (Celine Sallette) the veteran who longs to be a “respectable woman”; and Pauline (Iliana Zabeth), the newcomer whose eyes are quickly opened to reality. Using split screen, time shifts, and a modern soundtrack, Bonello creates an enigmatic and beautiful film on the world’s oldest profession that offers a provocative commentary on history as remembered by art and literature.