Mostly, the movie is committed to the value of a good time.

This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows

Yes, absolutely, there is fun to be had, as well as many, many things to go boom, all amid an atmospheric urban jungle.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

In the enjoyable but ultimately silly film, a wealthy Parisian journalist interview a couple of students who are earning their way through college working as prostitutes. Expecting to pity them, she finds herself envying (and fancying) them; the film makes the point that interviewer and interviewees alike inhabit a world that is full of rich men and luxurious surroundings, but the working girls have a measure of sexual excitement and control lacking in the married life. Now I can accept that not every prostitute is drug addicted, enslaved and so on: but it's hard to believe in the romantic and glamorous way their lives are depicted. Interestingly, this is a film directed by a woman, and starring three women as well: clearly the stereotype of the high-class hooker has enduring appeal to both sexes.

I was expecting Juliette Binoche to be as fabulous as she normally is, but she was the disappointment among the three female leads.To be fair, I think it was the fault of the part, rather than faults in her performance. I think the idea was that her character, the journalist, got so involved in what she was researching and writing that she forgot about her own life and family until the story was finished; but the result was that her character was just a mess.What I liked about the film was what seemed to be a much more honest and realistic portrayal of the two prostitutes than we normally see. Both were very believable. Both students, one (Anaïs Demoustier as Charlotte) in control of what she was doing, and the other (Joanna Kulig as Alicja) drinking to much and seemingly headed for disaster. Both of them liked sex; Charlotte liked the sex she had with her customers apparently just as much as she liked the sex she had with her boyfriend. You don't see that in Hollywood movies. In Hollywood movies the prostitutes never kiss and they never have orgasms, and they all hate what they're doing. In this film, Charlotte didn't hate it at all, in fact she liked it a lot; whereas Joanna said that she liked it, and seemed to like the physical sensations, but also seemed to hate the idea of what she was doing. That seemed pretty realistic to me.There were two things that struck me particularly. One was quite early on in the film, when Juliette Binoche asked Charlotte why she kept working. The answer was that the money was hard to give up.The second was from Charlotte again, and again in answer to a question from Juliette. The question was, what was the worst thing about the work, and the answer was having to tell lies all the time.Both of those things rang pretty true to me.So what it comes down to is a more realistic portrayal of prostitution than we normally get, but a rather messy movie with a rather messy central character.

Polish screenwriter, producer and director Malgorzata Szumowska's fourth feature film which she co-wrote with Danish French-based psychoanalyst, journalist and screenwriter Tine Byrckel and co-produced, is somewhat based on stories from real-life prostitutes which the director met as part of her research. It premiered in the Special Presentations section at the 36th Toronto International Film Festival in 2011, was screened in the Spotlight section at the 11th Tribeca Film Festival in 2012, in the Panorama section at the 62nd Berlin International Film Festival in 2012 and is a Poland-France-Germany co-production which was shot in Paris, France and Cologne, Germany and produced by Danish-French producer Marianne Slot. It tells the story about a journalist for the worldwide fashion magazine Elle named Anne who lives in Paris, France with her husband named Patrick and their two adolescent sons named Florent and Stephane. Anne is doing an article about female student prostitution and is enlightened when she meets a French woman named Charlotte and a Polish woman named Alicja who explicitly tells her about their experiences with their clients.Finely and intimately directed by Polish filmmaker Malgorzata Szumowska, this quietly paced fictional tale which is narrated from the viewpoints of a driven reporter and two young call girls, draws a somewhat engaging portrayal of a middle-aged woman who after getting to know and becoming intrigued by a lifestyle that is very foreign to that of her own, begins to care more about the theme of her article than her own family. While notable for its at times atmospheric, bleak and mostly interior milieu depictions, fine production design by production designer Pauline Bourdon and cinematography by Polish cinematographer Michal Englert, this character-driven and dialog-driven independent film depicts a dense study of character and contains a good score by Polish composer Pawel Mykietin.This at times graphic and as intended dispassionate and unattractive story about young women who supports their high-class lifestyles by pleasing the repulsive sexual fantasies of mostly married male clients who are old enough to be their fathers and how their stories and perceptions of their chosen profession affects an outsider's view on them and her own way of life, is impelled and reinforced by its fragmented narrative structure, subtle character development, multiple viewpoints, evasive characters and the credible acting performances by French actress Juliette Binoche, Polish actress Joanna Kulig, French actress Anaïs Demoustier and French screenwriter, director and actor Louis-Do de Lencquesaing. This unsentimental erotic drama where the suspense is centered on whether or not the protagonist's fascination and empathy for the sex workers will seduce and instigate her to risk losing her family, commendably attempts to create new perspectives on a theme that has been thoroughly examined in many other fictional and non-fictional feature films.

Why do 'art' films have to be slow? It appears some film makers forget their actors' faces are many times life size and a discriminating audience are attentive ... like this one. When a point has been made, move on. This seems unfamiliar to this film maker. That's the first point. Point two : yes, the two girls are having paid sex with married men; yes, they are doing things the men's wives possibly don't care to do, but where is the love? There's a conventional assumption that paid sex is gloomy,glum and unreciprocated. Pity. Final point : There's a possible film here : three stories in parallel- each echoing and counter pointing each other. But this didn't happen, except in a superficial way. A serious pity.