Claire Dolan

I've seen Claire Dolan in Paris in the theatre. It is a very brutal film, but also very powerful. I think that the director is talented, although the ending left me wanting a bit more. It's a very honest film about prostitution, and sometimes chillingly real. I was disturbed by the violence. It is very well done, with great, believable actors.

i usually am not the sentimental type but when i heard of katrin cartlidges death, believe me, i burst into tears. we lost one of the most charismatic, talented and intense actresses ever and this film proves it. her enigmatic, scene-stealing presence can´t be matched. this film is as haunting as kerrigans debut CLEAN SHAVEN. that´s all there is to say about this original piece of work. and i can´t wait to see kerrigan´s new film IN GOD´S HANDS which is still in the making.

It is an intriguing film, told from a woman's point of view. This film allows the viewer time to think which is a big thing. It allowed me to become involved. It is well directed and has unpretentious camera work. Claire is a sensitive woman trying to escape her present, and her past. The action is paced well and does not push a lot of dialog onto us. Like the main character, Claire, the characters draw their reactions to situations at the same time as we do, giving us time to draw our own conclusions. Vincent D'Onofrio plays Elton, the caring lover, discovering the unusual woman. I thought he played his character with great depth, and I really like finding his old films before TV. The Irish pimp, Cain, played by Colm Mearey played his role straight enough. The film shows the world of high-class prostitution with sex scenes that are never voyeuristic but tasteful, again from Claire's viewpoint. And there are nice locations like Manhattan as well as gritty ones.

One's first impression might be that the characters and scenes in this movie are simply too cold and emotionless. However, a careful study reveals the "seething" emotions going on in each player; from the pimp Cain who "seethes" with a misogynistic disdain of the women working for him to Elton (played with excellence by Vincent D'Onofrio) who seethes with longing to fulfill something greater in life than just being a cab driver (the attempted mugging scene whereafter he breaks down is just superb!). I think that the final two scenes of the movie--one between a "converted", pregnant Claire being approached by a former john, the other between the Cain and Elton with his wife -- excellently display the tormented, soulful emotions of the characters involved in this story.

After seeing this film I was immediately struck by its similarities to Chantal Akerman's Jeanne Dielman. Certainly, they are very different films, but there is a significant overlap, not just in subject matter and character--Jeanne and Claire--but also in approach. So much of Claire's life passes in silence or repetition that the parallels to Jeanne are fairly strong. Also, viewing Claire in the context of Jeanne at least suggests that having a child will not at all be the answer and solution that Claire is looking for, as motherhood did not make Jeanne Dielman's life wonderful. This film never looks as stark or as imagistic or as metaphorically thought through as Akerman's film, but as it moves along, and despite prosaic and occasionally clumsy scenes, it does attain a visual presence, and aspires to some imagistic displays. When her pimp asserts ruthlessly deterministic views of Claire, they cast a huge shadow on the events left unresolved, and few viewers can come away from this film with anything approaching an upbeat reading; but as a reminder that humans are fragile, frustrating, frustrated and often just aimlessly pathetic, this can stand alone, a stones throw away from a brilliant experiment like Akerman's Jeanne Dielman.