Student Services (2010) directed by Emmanuelle Bercot
This film is so obscure (ie unimportant and mediocre) that it has no Wikipedia entry or a single critic review from Rottentomatoes, but thanks to Netflix I was able to randomly click on this movie and waste the better part of two hours of my life. It's not that this film is bad, in fact it's actually pretty decent, but if I write a review to a movie that no one has ever heard of or will ever care to watch, why would they bother reading it? And remember, I can only watch a finite number of movies for this blog so I could have watched a "real" movie instead. But every now and then you got to take that chance, so I went out on a limb hoping to discover an awesome foreign flick but instead I got some random movie with no real significance. That's really not any different than watching a random current movie in theaters though. This movie is certainly better than some of the mediocrities I've watched like Pirates 4 and Priest. Upon further research, Student Services wasn't even a theatrical release in France. It was a TV movie, probably the equivalent of an original late night HBO or Showtime feature, which is actually probably why I decided to watch it in the first place. Raunchy situations and full frontal nudity!
Student Services is about a young college student named Laura who is struggling to get by and must resort to prostitution to pay the bills. She goes on the internet in the adult personals and nervously agrees to meet a man named Joe who's willing to pay her 100 euros for an hour. She is scared and nervous, but also incredibly naive. She has no idea what she is getting into and even after her first uncomfortable encounter with Joe, where they don't even have sex, she still has no idea what she has gotten herself into. She sees the cash in her hand and smells it like a bouquet of flowers, thinking her problems are all solved.
But this path can only lead into one direction, one where Laura is not willing to admit to herself she is heading. In her second encounter, she meets another man only seeing the money involved and not the acts that she has to do to get it. The two have a date and she naively talks down to her customer, ready to give it a go. Yet when it comes down to actually doing the deed, she is nervous and reluctant. He takes matters into his own hands and basically rapes her in a pretty shocking and revealing scene. As the customer drives off leaving her alone in the parking lot, there is a close up of Laura's clenched fist squeezing her blood money in anger. After this point, she goes head onto her job, but makes it clear that it is only a job to her. None of the scenes with paying customers are very erotic or sensual, she just lies there without emotion or a hint of pleasure. Contrast that however to when she makes love to her boyfriend where she allows herelf to let go.
But where does her job end and where does her personal life begin? The two lines inevitably blur together. The relationship with the understanding boyfriend obviously becomes strained. What she was once doing just to pay the bills, she now does to buy fancy dinners and new flashy jackets. She is becoming the one thing she swore she would not become, a whore. However, the film does not have the happy or sad ending you would expect. It falls right in the middle, purposely ambiguous. She passes her classes, but loses her boyfriend, she is further humiliated and frustrated by job but reaps the rewards of it. After a disturbing encounter with Joe, she seemingly quits forever, yet does she really? The film ends with her looking into renting out a fancy apartment that no regular student could possibly afford. Did she get a new job after successfully completing college? Is she still a prostitute? She refuses to say and instead looks directly into the camera inviting us to look into her eyes and guess.
The film is pretty unevenly directed. Some parts are well thought out and constructed, others border on made-for-TV bad. In other words, it could have been tightened up a little. Despite its premise and nudity, this film is not particularly erotic, it is more cold and depressing if anything, which is exactly the point. However, I found it frustrating how naive Laura is. What does she honestly expect to happen?
Note: There is a scene where she is trying to study at a bar with a live band playing and is frustrated when guys approach her. I feel like this has been in other movies before, but obviously that is a retarded scenario.
Note 2: The actor who plays Joe (Alain Cauchi) looks almost exactly like a French Burt Reynolds, which is pretty hilarious.
Grade: C+
This film is so obscure (ie unimportant and mediocre) that it has no Wikipedia entry or a single critic review from Rottentomatoes, but thanks to Netflix I was able to randomly click on this movie and waste the better part of two hours of my life. It's not that this film is bad, in fact it's actually pretty decent, but if I write a review to a movie that no one has ever heard of or will ever care to watch, why would they bother reading it? And remember, I can only watch a finite number of movies for this blog so I could have watched a "real" movie instead. But every now and then you got to take that chance, so I went out on a limb hoping to discover an awesome foreign flick but instead I got some random movie with no real significance. That's really not any different than watching a random current movie in theaters though. This movie is certainly better than some of the mediocrities I've watched like Pirates 4 and Priest. Upon further research, Student Services wasn't even a theatrical release in France. It was a TV movie, probably the equivalent of an original late night HBO or Showtime feature, which is actually probably why I decided to watch it in the first place. Raunchy situations and full frontal nudity!
Student Services is about a young college student named Laura who is struggling to get by and must resort to prostitution to pay the bills. She goes on the internet in the adult personals and nervously agrees to meet a man named Joe who's willing to pay her 100 euros for an hour. She is scared and nervous, but also incredibly naive. She has no idea what she is getting into and even after her first uncomfortable encounter with Joe, where they don't even have sex, she still has no idea what she has gotten herself into. She sees the cash in her hand and smells it like a bouquet of flowers, thinking her problems are all solved.
But this path can only lead into one direction, one where Laura is not willing to admit to herself she is heading. In her second encounter, she meets another man only seeing the money involved and not the acts that she has to do to get it. The two have a date and she naively talks down to her customer, ready to give it a go. Yet when it comes down to actually doing the deed, she is nervous and reluctant. He takes matters into his own hands and basically rapes her in a pretty shocking and revealing scene. As the customer drives off leaving her alone in the parking lot, there is a close up of Laura's clenched fist squeezing her blood money in anger. After this point, she goes head onto her job, but makes it clear that it is only a job to her. None of the scenes with paying customers are very erotic or sensual, she just lies there without emotion or a hint of pleasure. Contrast that however to when she makes love to her boyfriend where she allows herelf to let go.
But where does her job end and where does her personal life begin? The two lines inevitably blur together. The relationship with the understanding boyfriend obviously becomes strained. What she was once doing just to pay the bills, she now does to buy fancy dinners and new flashy jackets. She is becoming the one thing she swore she would not become, a whore. However, the film does not have the happy or sad ending you would expect. It falls right in the middle, purposely ambiguous. She passes her classes, but loses her boyfriend, she is further humiliated and frustrated by job but reaps the rewards of it. After a disturbing encounter with Joe, she seemingly quits forever, yet does she really? The film ends with her looking into renting out a fancy apartment that no regular student could possibly afford. Did she get a new job after successfully completing college? Is she still a prostitute? She refuses to say and instead looks directly into the camera inviting us to look into her eyes and guess.
The film is pretty unevenly directed. Some parts are well thought out and constructed, others border on made-for-TV bad. In other words, it could have been tightened up a little. Despite its premise and nudity, this film is not particularly erotic, it is more cold and depressing if anything, which is exactly the point. However, I found it frustrating how naive Laura is. What does she honestly expect to happen?
Note: There is a scene where she is trying to study at a bar with a live band playing and is frustrated when guys approach her. I feel like this has been in other movies before, but obviously that is a retarded scenario.
Note 2: The actor who plays Joe (Alain Cauchi) looks almost exactly like a French Burt Reynolds, which is pretty hilarious.
Grade: C+
Ha ha interesting!
ReplyDeleteYou sure are a weirdo sometimes.
If you're horny, I'd recommend porn and then you can actually watch a good, and real, movie.
By the way, are we going to see any porn reviews in this project? That would be funny.
That reminds me: I was in a Barnes & Noble the other day and in the bluray section next to the Harry Potter movies was a Vivid all out porn (Pirates 2: Stagnetti's Revenge). It wasn't clearly marked as a porn... Could you imagine someone buying that thinking it fit the Harry Potter / Pirates of the Caribbean audience?!?!? Ha ha ha. In for quite a surprise!!