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Therapists Are To Life, What Prostitutes Are To Love?
So Claims New Erotic Drama – Special Treatment
Bouli LANNERS and Isabelle HUPPERT
Prostitution and psychoanalysis have probably never shared the same sentence, let alone a movie screen. That was until cult filmmaker Jeanne Labrune crafted the darkly erotic drama Special Treatment, bringing these two unlikely forms of therapy together in one mind-bending film. Starring the undeniably talented French actress Isabelle Huppart, Special Treatment crosses the lines of safe and sanity with eerily accurate portrayals of human relations and the ultimate green cloth—money.
In her second role as a prostitute, Huppert plays a woman named Alice who serves up sexual fantasies for her clientele, from schoolgirl innocent to S&M dominatrix. Fed up with the seamy underbelly of French masculinity, Alice crosses paths with Xavier, a neurotic psychoanalyst facing a marriage crisis. The two quickly realize their professions share a thing or two in common as they navigate the overlapping worlds of psychotherapy and sexual therapy.
Special Treatment brings audiences face-to-face with the harsh reality that the family shrink and the scantily clad corner-girl might have more in common than originally thought.
Labrune and her writing partner Richard Debuisne started the script as a game comparing the similarities between the two—the discreet locations, exchange of money, time limits and emotional, physical prohibitions. “In some ways psychoanalysis is to life what prostitution is to love, an interlude, a substitutive experience which works with frustration, need and can create a kind of addiction,” said Labrune. The film makes the connection completely relevant and undeniably obvious.
However, Special Treatment does more than just analyze and compare two different types of therapy, even though one is highly frowned upon. This imaginative film unleashes questions about power, money and self-worth often found locked behind closed doors.
“The relationship with money is being questioned in the film because it is an obsession in today’s society. That which should only be a means of exchange has become something of value,” said Labrune. Her film shows this unavoidable connection through the unaccepted profession of prostitution to clearly shock and showcase her point to the audience.
“Prostitution is a practice that shows in the most obvious manner the relationship between a person and money. Alice embodies the question: what do you sell of yourself in your work? You always sell something, even if only your time. And the more of yourself you put into your work, the more you sell ‘yourself.’”
Huppart does a fantastic job depicting the hardships and questions that arise for the women who work in prostitution through her role as Alice. In every scene, she brings a new level of emotional depth to her character—a skill not commonly seen in today’s cinema. Huppart is captivating, mesmerizing and exceptionally well-versed in engaging dialog throughout the film.
Special Treatment is bound to open eyes and minds to ideas about prostitution, psychoanalysis and life that can only lead to new revelations about all three.
Opening in August.