Starring: Juliette Binoche, Anaïs Demoustier, Joanna Kulig
Directed by: Małgorzata Szumowska
Rating: ★★☆☆☆
Many Polish film directors have benefited from the Paris-Warsaw axis forged by French television network Canal+, which often takes on the lion’s share of co-production costs. Features by Krzysztof Kieślowski and Andrzej Żuławski have won the respect of French audiences, and patrons. Hopefully, the innocuousness of Małgorzata Szumowska’s latest film will not erode her future career, or the excellent Polish-French moviemaking partnership.
The English loan word ‘sponsoring’ is used in Polish to refer to relationships between young women and sugar daddies. Szumowska wrote the script using material from interviews with young prostitutes. Similarly, Anne, the protagonist played by Juliette Binoche, repeatedly and obsessively interviews two young Parisian call girls for an article she is writing. Despite her instinctive professional detachment, Binoche’s character begins to question whether it is her or the two prostitutes who are subject to the worst abuses.
Szumowska has described the young sex workers as victims of consumerism, but Szumowska is equally a victim of her own choices, especially with regard to the conventional script penned in association with Danish rookie Tine Byrckel. Szumowska has also made poor use of the Polish cast, with senior actors given only a few scenes here and there. Krystyna Janda appears fleetingly as Alicja’s mother and Andrzej Chyra, depicting a sadistic client, puts in a performance that evokes the butter scene in Last Tango in Paris (1972). We truly hope that Madame Binoche will be willing to work with Polish film directors again in the future.
Originally published by The Krakow Post on May 02, 2012