House of Pleasures
Sundance Selects | Release Date: November 25, 2011 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
75
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 9 Critic Reviews
Positive:
7
Mixed:
2
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Slant MagazinePhil ColdironNov 22, 2011
A brief history of time and space, according to Bertrand Bonello. Read full review
91
The A.V. ClubScott TobiasNov 22, 2011
Without soft-pedaling it in the least, Bonello nonetheless mourns the passing of a time where prostitutes didn't control their destinies, but at least had each other. Read full review
88
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertFeb 8, 2012
No one, male or female, has any fun, but the men behave as if they do. They are all half-stupefied by the languor in which they drown. Read full review
80
Chicago ReaderBen SachsFeb 9, 2012
Like Walter Benjamin, Bonello associates this insularity with both innocence and the 19th century; and when, in the final sequence of House of Pleasures, he dispenses with the security exuded by these subjects, the effect is like being shaken violently out of a dream. Read full review
80
Village VoiceJ. HobermanNov 22, 2011
The filmmaker gives full vent to his romanticism by staging an End of the Epoch party, with tearful sex workers dancing to "Nights in White Satin," then steps on the mood with yet another farewell fête, commemorating Bastille Day. The prisoners are free - to walk the streets. Ironic, no? Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleMar 29, 2012
It's a strange film, very original and very good. Just by virtue of the subject matter, it can't help but be erotic, and yet eroticism is not the movie's purpose. Read full review
63
New York PostV.A. MusettoDec 1, 2011
Despite copious full-frontal female nudity, House of Pleasures isn't mere sexploitation. Rather, it's a gorgeously filmed portrait of a bygone era, with painstaking attention to period detail. On the downside, the movie is overlong. Read full review
60
The New York TimesStephen HoldenDec 1, 2011
Throughout the film there is an abundance of sumptuously photographed flesh on view. But House of Pleasures is not an erotic stimulant so much as a slow-moving, increasingly tragic and claustrophobic operatic pageant set almost entirely in the brothel. Read full review
60
Time OutDavid FearNov 22, 2011
The result is erratic, occasionally WTF hilarious (three words: revenge by panther!), and in its transgressive tracks-of-my-tears climax, capable of finding pleasure in being bat-shit crazy. Read full review
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