Binoche plays Anne a well-heeled Parisian journalist who works for Elle magazine. She is stressed-out by trying to balance career and marriage and motherhood. Her husband is rarely at home and when he is he's looking at internet porn or talking on his mobile phone. Her oldest son is spaced out on marijuana and her youngest son is addicted to violent computer games.
For her work Binoche is researching an article about students in Paris who pay for their studies by working as prostitutes. She interviews two girls who openly discuss their lives and the men they have sex with for money. One girl is Polish and the other is Parisian. Both are educated and in control of their lives. As Anne interviews them we are given glimpses of their lives and the sexual acts they engage in for money.
For those who know Szumowska's 33 Scenes From Life it will come as no surprise that the director is unafraid of explicit sex scenes. But Elles goes far beyond anything we have seen in her previous films making this film nothing short of an exploration of the meaning of female sexuality. Binoche is always consummately intelligent and classy and it is impossible for anything she does to descend into sordidness. But some of the scenes as we enter the lives of the young prostitutes that she is interviewing for her article become disturbingly brutal and deviant. More disturbing is that the prostitutes seem to enjoy their work.
Anne begins to question her own life and values and questions what really constitutes prostitution. Do we all sell ourselves in one way or another? We follow her as she becomes drunk and explores her own sexuality.
The idea for the film came from a article in a French newspaper about Parisian students who work as prostitutes to pay for their studies. The students were not victims but girls in control of their own lives and who made choices about who they slept with for money. Rather than being ashamed of what they did they were proud of their ability to earn good sums of money and buy expensive clothes while living as students. The film's scriptwriter Tine Byrckel was fascinated by the girls' attitude.
Speaking at the press conference Szumowska who does not speak French said she was actually recruited by the producer of the film because she wanted a director from central or Eastern Europe who would bring a fresh view to the subject. She said: "I did some research in Poland by going out and speaking with some prostitutes and I was surprised. They talked very openly. They were not ashamed and even seemed satisfied with their lives."
Szumowska said that from the beginning it was her dream to work with Binoche on the film. The director does not speak French one of the main languages of the film but she said that often it was an advantage not to speak the language that the scenes were being shot in because it focused her attention more on the emotions that were being played out before the camera.
As Binoche said the film is really about sexuality as defined by women, a feminine reflection on what it means to be a woman in society, what women want, what are their needs and what are their desires.
Director: Malgoska Szumowska
Cast: Juliette Binoche, Anaïs Demoustier, Joanna Kulig
Produced by Slot Machine production, in coproduction with Zentropa Intl. Poland, Zentropa Intl. Koln, Canal Plus Poland, ZDF Shot Szumowski, Liberator Prods., with the support of Polish Film Institute (www.pisf.pl)
