HIDDEN TREASURES - EXOTICA, HOUSE OF TOLERANCE, MAITRESSE

I've been at these Hidden Treasures for weeks, and I haven't yet done a post on sex. There's no good reason for that. And so, this week's post is all about S.E.X. But, because it's Hidden Treasures, it's a very serious post!

EXOTICA (1994) - ATOM EGOYAN

Whatever it is that draws Atom Egoysn ever further into the human mind, deeper into our sexual drives and desires, or perhaps he has little knowledge of anything else. His filmography is steeped in the waters from the carnal corners of society's collective psyche. There is love here, and pain, indeed the full emotional spectrum, manifested in physical form. And in the cloudy crevice that is Egoyan's Canada, almost 30 times the size of Germany yet with less than half its population, tucked away on the edge of the continent, what secrets he prises out of these alienated individuals. An exceptional ensemble of actors, many of whom are Egoyan regulars, who have rarely been better, blindly stroll through the still haze of their lives, colliding with one another, either intentionally or not, dealing with one another's faults and problems, and being forced to deal with their own. It's a typically atmospheric, cinematically seductive meditation from Egoyan, technically and emotionally full of beauty, class and awareness. As rich and intelligent a film as the great writer-director has made to date.

Click the cut for the other two.



HOUSE OF TOLERANCE (2011) - BERTRAND BONELLO

Women, and their position in the world. L'Apollonide, the house, the maison close, with its choice of women of any and all temperaments, ethnicities, backgrounds. The turn of three centuries, and what changes but the decor and the clothes? Today, they have been released from the home, but can men allow them in to the global society which they once regarded as theirs and theirs alone? Josee Deshaies' images are thick and sumptuous, and the artistic direction of the film is superb. Bertrand Bonello directs with his trademark frankness, and flair too - an ability to adapt his style to fit the moment, and yet to stem his adaptations back to a feeling of melancholy, somewhat eccentric, ephemeral but profound, and in apparently intuitive touch with the thoughts and opinions of his cast of women. They are all so memorable, and so unique, and so ordinary. Humour, tension, tragedy, and a jarring jolt of brilliantly anachronistic music add spice to an already intoxicating mix. House of Tolerance (also known as House of Pleasures) is a gorgeous film, one which we sink into, velvety and poisonous.

MAITRESSE (1975) - BARBET SCHROEDER

And now to the extreme. Barbet Schroeder makes no attempt to probe the mentality of those who avail of Ariane's (Bulle Ogier) services. For her, this is a soulless experience, a trade, in which punishment and humiliation are instruments of safety, and emotion is the most dangerous weapon of all. It's far from a sexless experience, though, and the boundaries which she has established out of necessity are vague and even offensive to Olivier (Gerard Depardieu). Schroeder's style is sterile, Nestor Almendros' cinematography cold and cleansing, the lead actors' performances hard and cerebral - characters deliberately difficult to like, and difficult to understand. As an exercise in cruel discomfort, they don't come more artistically superior than Maitresse. Even the tension, as mild as it may have ever been, dissolves toward the end, as Schroeder refuses to provide the sensationalistic ending most might have expected. A thought-provoking, oft-overlooked film from an under-appreciated director.