“House of Pleasures” is a French Film that was featured at both the Cannes Film Festival and Toronto International Film Festival. This movie takes place in a brothel during 1899 and 1900. The story revolved around the Madeleine (Alice Barnole), her co-workers, and their clients. They attempt to show the audience what happens behind the scenes of a fictional brothel and what the ladies have to go through in their line of work. Everything looks glamorous to the clients, but the work conditions and standard of living are anything but spectacular even for this time period.

For a movie named “House of Pleasure,” I found this movie to be very unpleasing to watch in every way possible. The plot was very boring and pretty shallow. Adding to that fact, I disliked all of the characters and I had a lot of trouble finding anything to connect with the movie in general. Also, the music was very bland and the pacing of the movie was very slow. All these things mixed together in one movie made it a real train wreck that was painful to watch and sit though.

The constant and unnecessary nudity in the movie was not enough to save it for anyone watching. The only recommendation I can make for this movie is for everyone to stay as far away from it as possible. They tried to make an artsy movie that takes place in a brothel, but horribly failed. The symbolism was awkward and unrelatable for general audiences. For those reasons, I am giving this movie an “F.”