Elles

Just after I had finished obsessively watching The Secret Diary of a London Call Girl TV series on line every day, I was surprised to see that the French movie Elles was coming out. This might sound like a lot of prostitution related media - yes I am on the book now!  - But the truth is, these works made my mind open on the topic and put a few moral certainties off balance.

Just like the film Elles shows in many scenes, I was used to looking at prostitutes as women without a choice.  Back home in Italy, I have always heard stories of foreign women who, misled with promises of a better life in Italy, were then beaten up, made prisoners and forced to be prostitutes by ruthless men. Obviously, after long years under a certain Prime Minister who did not even try to hide his sexual habits and orgiastic parties, I guess the idea of “escort” was introduced to the public mind. But since this was politically related, the women were seen as social climbers, rather than simply prostitutes.

It had never crossed my mind that someone, just out of the blue, would decide to be a prostitute as a career. Watching The Diaries, I found myself admiring the main character interpreted by Billie Piper, relating to her, wanting to look like her, and envying her for her sexual experience and confidence. I started to think that prostitutes are feminists.  They are empowered women who make men happy because they make their fantasies come true, they make them feel that it is OK to have sexual fantasies, and they don’t do it because of their loyalty to them: they are well paid for it, like high end psychotherapists with lacy hold ups.

In Elles, Juliette Binoche is an investigative journalist who comes across two students in Paris who also sell their body to make money. It could seem a juvenile “mistake” driven by the need to have everything and fast in this day and age. But there is so much more in the film that makes our usual principles turn and spin several times till the mind surrenders to the simple truth that prostitution is not just a physical act but a mind twist. “Are there women who are more whores than others?” wonders Anne (Binoche’s character). Aren’t many of us all somehow giving up morals for our jobs? Putting career and money first, thinking it is the only way to feel empowered and realised as women in this society? “Admit it, you don’t care about anything but your job,” says Anne’s husband in the film. And no, she can’t deny it. Simply because, driven by duty, and feeling like she is doing the right thing, ticking all the boxes society asks a woman to tick, she had felt she had conquered her little paradise where husband and family are only a facade to a much more individual existence. Until, that is, the girls she meets remind her of a forgotten humanity.