Madame Claude

Luxe hookers: Garance Marillier and Karole Rocher in Madame Claude

Sylvie Verheyde's Madame Claude, currently streaming on Netflix, chronicles the rise and mostly fall of a Parisian brothel owner whose sex workers catered to the wealthy elite during the swinging 60s. Early reviews have been negative and I can understand why. Verheyde tries to shoehorn the Madame into the role of a feminist entrepreneur who caters to the old boy network and then is done in by those old boys upon the coming to power of Valery Giscard d'Estaing, the most aristocratic of France's Fifth Republic Presidents, who cracked down on prostitution. Verheyde's script doesn't provide a convincing political and cultural background to support her point of view. She attempts to show Madame Claude's links to the authorities and the criminal underworld, but the attempts are murky.

Because of Verheyde's focus on the business end of Madame Claude's enterprise, some have found the film to be unerotic despite ample displays of flesh. However, I think this is Ms. Verheyde's point. Prostitution provides a sexual outlet, but its transactions are business ones not erotic ones

More damaging to the film is the paucity of characterization, Verheyde wants to show that Madame Claude's fillies are her alternative family since her mother and daughter spurn her. However, the differentiation of most of her girls is done by skin and hair color. Garance Marillier has the key role of Sidonie, a wild and damaged rich kid with nasty habits who joins Madame Claude's bande and becomes a daughter figure. Ms. Marillier doesn't register as enough of a badass and, given her ferocious turn in Raw, the fault seems to lie with Ms. Verheyde's direction and script. Roschdy Zem is affecting in an even more underwritten role.

Karole Rocher as Madame Claude holds the melodrama of the film together. She captures the hard bitten quality necessary for the role, affecting a rueful ambivalence to her charges and love interest. Melodrama is the key to the film's charms. When Roschdy Zem coughs during a scene, you know he will be sleeping the big sleep in a reel or two. When Ms. Marillier snorts and drinks with abandon, you know a bad result is just around the corner. Ms. Verheyde has wisely, given the alienating nature of the material, opted for a melodramatic structure for this work. A structure that provides support for the theme and the comfort of familiarity for the viewer. Ms. Verheyde has a mixed success as a storyteller in Madame Claude, but succeeds in conveying one of the eternal themes of melodrama: the suffering of women.

All of this wouldn't amount to a hill of beans if Ms. Verheyde hadn't developed an eye over six features. The film rises out of its torpor when trawling through chi chi discotheques or the strip clubs of the Quartier Pigalle. The lively soundtrack helps, guiding us from 60s garage rock to disco funk. The production design, by Thomas Grezaud, is first rate whether it be the night spots or Madame Claud's various pads. My recommendation of  Madame Claude would be very guarded, but those interested in French film or culture might find it edifying.