Filles de joie

"I've wanted to write about women's heroism for a long time. When I learned that I was pregnant and that I was going to have a daughter, it was a shock: how can you bring a little girl into the world when you see the extent of violence against women? It was all the more unbearable for me because, at that time, I myself was coming out of a toxic work and friendship relationship with a man. He had crushed me so badly that I sometimes felt like throwing myself out the window..." - Anne Paulicevich

Social cinema aims to deal with concrete subjects without resorting to useless artifices and above all to make viewers think. Written and co-directed by Anne Paulicevich and Frédéric Fonteyne, Filles de joie is about three women forced into prostitution to live and feed their families in a French town close to Belgium, where she has one of the oldest jobs in the world. In spite of a budget that one feels reduced due to the main subject of the film, which is not very promising in terms of commercial audience, Fille de joie deserves to be discovered in particular for the presence of Sara Forester, one of today's best actresses, in the leading female role. Despite the hardness of some of the images in this film, it deserves to be discovered for her presence and the strength she gives to her character.

Admittedly, in seeking to remain permanently realistic, the film cruelly lacks a conducive screenplay to a real evolution of the characters and the narrative thread seems to run through the days one after the other, even if the presence of the ex-husband of Axelle's character played by Sara Forester reinforces the film's dramatic character. We also sense that director Anne Paulicevich wants to settle scores with the male population and paints a not very flattering portrait of it. It is understandable that she wants to make a film that highlights the heroic character of women but much less the rather unfavorable portraits she makes of men, whether it be Dominique's husband (played by Sergi Lopez), Axelle's ex-husband, a close associate of Conso... With such a subject, director Ken Russell had made a hard-hitting film in 1984, Days and Nights of China Blue, in which actress Kathleen Turner also played a woman with an eventful double life (stylist and prostitute).

Filles de joie also paints a sad picture of our current society in which many people have no other means of survival than to sell their bodies and thus lose some of their self-respect. At a time when unemployment is on the rise, when a pandemic has struck the world, a film like this will hardly help viewers regain their smiles and above all show them how long-life lasts. We just wish this film had had a better script, especially since the actress Sara Forester is perfect once again.

Filles de joie
A film by Frédéric Fonteyne and Anne Paulicevich
Based on a screenplay by Anne Paulicevich
Starring Sara Forestier, Noémie Lvovsky, Annabelle Lengronne, Nicolas Cazalé, Jonas Bloquet, Sergi López, Salomé Dewaels, Jérémie Petrus
Director of Photography: Juliette Van Dormael
Editing: Damien Keyeux and Chantal Hymans
Music: Vincent Cahay
Co-producer: Olivier Bronckart, Yaël Fogiel, Laetitia Gonzalez and Nathalie Vallet
Associate producer: Philippe Logie, Arlette Zylberberg, Tanguy Dekeyser, Anne Paulicevich and Frédéric Fonteyne
Executive Producer: Jacques-Henri Bronckart, Gwennaëlle Libert
Production company: Versus Production, Les Films du Poisson and Prime Time
Distribution companies: KMBO (France)
Duration: 91 minutes
Release dates: January 29 2020 (Bron), June 22 2020 (France)

Viewed on 19 June 2020 in press link

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