No stranger to controversy, France’s not-so-young enfant terrible François Ozon ("Swimming Pool") has contrived another provocation with this unflinching portrait of a 17-year-old Parisienne, Isabelle (model-turned-actor Marine Vacth), who very deliberately chooses to work as an expensive call girl.
Ozon’s nonjudgmental tone and visual finesse elevate this potentially lurid scenario. Isabelle’s mother (Géraldine Pailhas) is understandably dismayed when the truth comes out, but the filmmaker charts a more neutral path, posing very pertinent questions about young women, sex and power that resonate well beyond the boundaries of the movie, making this a worthy modern counterpart to Bunuel’s classic Belle de Jour.
