HSX Forum

Movies

Reply Topic List All Forums

A couple of years ago I gave a talk on the courtesan / prostitute who was the model for the hero...

Posted by: second gary (a.k.a 80181597) on Jan 04, 22:06 in response to Toruk Facto's post Well, okay, good and serious answer, but

... of Verdi's opera, "La traviata," and I did a lot of background reading on prostitution in 19th-century France. One of the first "modern" sociological studies was written in Paris in the 1820s and 1830s by a researcher who viewed prostitution as a public health issue rather than a moral issue. I'm blanking on his name right now, but he's written up in a book by Charles Bernheimer called "Figures of ill-repute," written around 1990, I think.

The plight of Lena—a woman who has ambitions as an actress, but has to return to prostitution in order pay medical bills, and winds up a "kept woman" is familiar to me from this background reading. The French researcher (the one Bernheimer writes about) interviewed thousands of prostitutes, and the most common reasons for women turning to prostitution involved poverty, the death of a spouse or a father (hence poverty), the loss of a job (ditto). All to say I didn't find her actions, or her longing to escape that life, and to "prove" that escape by become the director's lover, I didn't find any of that implausible, or the basis for supposing that Almodovar was making a more general claim about women and sexuality. One of the things I appreciate about his films, even when they are more melodramatic (than others of his are), is how he leaves characters in difficult situations to find their way. In the case of Lena, one detail I like is that, I think, Almodovar makes it clear that she's not that good an actress, and this makes her future uncertain.

So Who Saw What Last Week? (me - nada) {nm} islander Jan 04, 11:20

Vantage Point- B {nm} ndmaster Jan 04, 11:23

500 Days of Summer - B-, Changeling, - A, Up in the Air - B+, Squeakquel - B {nm} lapuckfan Jan 04, 11:28

The Lovely Bones - B, Universal Soldier: Regeneration - B-, {nm} wrongturn687 Jan 04, 11:37

Up In the Air: A, Princess and the Frog: A-, Avatar (again): A, The Young Victoria: B- {nm} CSBD Jan 04, 11:37

Midnight (1939) A , The Palm Beach Story (1942) A , Art Blakey & the Jazz Messengers: Paris 1959 B + , and... joeoftexas Jan 04, 11:38

It's complicated. B+ {nm} Toruk Facto Jan 04, 11:46

Nine, B+; Paul Blart - Mall Cop, C; Emipre of the Sun, B+ {nm} edzep Jan 04, 11:50

Ocean's 13 (B)...Inglorious basterds (B)...Aliens (A) tealfan Jan 04, 11:57

UPAIR A-, Brothers B, The Road B, Sherlock Holmes D for Dreck, A Serious Man (A), Out of the Past (A), Eyes Without a Face (A) goodvibe61 Jan 04, 12:01

! You're the only one besides myself that I've seen put a D on Holmes. I'm more of a Jeremy Brett guy, though. {nm} edzep Jan 04, 15:34

What was so subpar about SHOLM, in you two guys' opinions? It's by far Ritchie's biggest success, anyways. It was alright holiday Toruk Facto Jan 04, 16:58