House of Tolerance

Life in an elegant early-20th-century Parisian brothel. The madam essentially owns the women: their expenses exceed earnings; they are in debt. They face problems of pregnancy, opium, age, and violent clients. One reads sociology at her peril. Occasionally, a client talks of marriage. There are also friendships and affection among the women. The madam is in a dispute with her landlord and calls on influential clients to help. There's a picnic one summer day, a wake, and an evening in masks. Have they expectations? A street scene in contemporary Paris is the coda to this experience.—