Nominated for 8 French Césars du Cinéma, Bertrand Bonello’s House of Tolerance is a highly stylized look at the final days of a turn-of-the-century brothel in Paris bathed in languid beauty and sexuality. In the 19th Century much of the Parisian sex trade was confined to ‘maisons closes’, populated by elegant madams and a vetted clientele. The ladies were provocatively dressed and, upstairs, occupied numerous boudoirs ready for carnal pleasures. However, even in such a controlled environment, dangers still lurked: disease was rampant and sometimes a gentleman might lose his temper and harm one of the women…
