Directed by Jeanne Labrune.
The French, or at least the French filmmakers, have always been very good at sex and Isabelle Huppert has become an expert, having played a prostitute in several films (Heaven’s Gate, Slow Motion, La Vie Promise) and pushed sexual boundaries in several others including The Piano Teacher. In Special Treatment she endears herself to audiences as Alice, a high-class prostitute who specialises in role-playing but can also exchange sex for an antique bowl that she happens to fancy. In a brilliant performance, the 58 year-old Huppert becomes a school girl, a dominatrix or a 1950s housewife to entertain her needy clients.
Then she meets a very difficult client Xavier (Bouli Lanners), an uptight psychoanalyst who had just separated from his wife and business partner. He doesn’t really know what he wants and, in some highly amusing sequences, she unsuccessfully tries several personas in order to carry out the seductions that she has been contracted to do. At the same time, Alice realises that she is not in Wonderland and doesn’t want to be in her current occupation any more. After she has to defend herself from an aggressive customer, she decides to seek professional help. Hoping that therapy will give her the strength to get another job, she tries consulting some of Xavier’s colleagues.
I know that it is not exactly an original concept to juxtapose the work of a prostitute the work of a psychoanalyst, as they both dealing with challenging people who generally have special needs, but I found the comparisons extremely entertaining. Alice and Xavier share many things in common including being unhappy with their respective lines of work. Both want to change their lives but neither of them knows how to go about it. Fortunately there’s a guardian antique angel being passed around from character to character to help out.
Lezly Herbert
***
