Madame Claude

It's a different movie and not too much happens. It meanders along from start to finish with little change.

It's watchable, but it's not for everyone.

Summary

Interesting and at times controversial biopic of the most influential pimp woman in France. Also a film about the many and sometimes surprising but inevitable derivations of high-end pimping.

Review

Madame Claude is concerned above all with the heyday of who was the most exalted and famous pimp woman in France during the presidencies of de Gaulle and Pompidou, how she ran her "house" and her "mansion" and her relationship with the circles of power.

This Silvie Verhayde partial biopic of Fernande Grudet, aka Madame Claude, focuses on three aspects. On the one hand, she was the pimp of the most exclusive network of female prostitution for more than a decade, which led her to link with circles of power, organized crime and others that the viewer will discover, striking a dangerous balance between them. Coupled with her sixties setting, this sometimes surprising but unavoidable aspect of high-end pimping lends the film, at times, a fascinating and sophisticated spy-movie climate. Do not demand a broad development of these subplots from this film as if it were a documentary or a miniseries; they simply place us in what the protagonist negotiated, trafficked and dealt with.

The other two aspects, closely related to each other, have to do with his private life and the way in which he managed his network, concentrated in high-end brothels (houses and later mansions), describing how he related to "his" prostitutes and the "Community" or "family" that they made up, which the film describes in an unbiased way, but without sparing any of its facets. This description of the intimate realm of VIP prostitution (and by extension of prostitution in general) will be controversial for some. In particular, Madame Claude's bond with whoever was her right hand, the enigmatic Sidonie (in a very good performance by Garance Mallinier, protagonist of the notable Voracious), develops. The director and actress Hafzsia Herzi also appears in the role of another call girl.

Karole Roche carries out a very good interpretation, combining toughness, dryness and passion of her difficult and complex character, showing a Madame Claude determined to make a place in the male power plot, exercising tight control of her prostitution network with a imprint that went from the maternal to the despotic and ruthless and going through the difficult relationship with her family.

The re-enactment of the period is very successful, with a soundtrack with French themes from the period very conveniently located and the usual European casualness in the intimate scenes.

I watched Madame Claude by Sylvie Verheyde on Netflix, which just premiered a couple of days ago. It's the second French biopic about "Madame Claude," née Fernande Grudet, who operated the most illustrious brothel in Paris for fifteen years in the 1960's and 1970's--the first, also titled Madame Claude, by Just Jaekin, dates from 1977 and starred Francoise Fabian. I wasn't sure I would like the new version, since a few of the reviews panned it, but I decided to start watching it to see if I liked it. I watched it all. I saw it VOSTF--speaking French with French subtitles.

The best thing about this film is that it is directed by a woman, Sylvie Verheyde. This is important, although little discussed by the mostly male critics and commentators, but I doubt that any male director could have enjoyed the intimacy with the almost entirely female cast. There is only one principal male character, the voyou--gangster--Jo Attia, played by veteran actor Roschdy Zem, who occupies a minor role. Most of the film ostensibly takes place in Madame Claude's maisons closes at 18, rue de Marignan, near the Champs-Elysées, and 32, rue de Boulainvilliers, a discrete location in the 16th.

A crucial aspect of the film is mostly ignored by the American audience or even by French people who did not live in Paris in the 1960's and 1970's, as I did. A Yugoslav, Stevan Markovic, whose name is mispronounced by some of the characters, a Corsican, François Marcantoni, President George Pompidou, his wife, Claude, and the actor Alain Delon were all involved in a bombshell scandal that erupted in 1968 and is evoked a background to the film to suggest Madame Claude's connections with la pègre, the French underworld. According to the Wikipedia, the affair began when one of Delon's bodyguards, Markovic, was found dead. Both Delon and his longtime friend Marcantoni were questioned by the police. Marcantoni was originally charged with the murder, but after further questioning by the police, he was released. Markovic's murder is still unsolved.

Most of the sexy scenes are near the beginning of the film. There are a few violent moments, but most of the film revolves around the entrepreneurial Madame Claude's business and the "Claudettes" she recruited for her wealthy and powerful clients. The end is worth the wait.

There are several good articles online, some with cheesecake photos, about Madame Claude. Several books, including her 1994 autobiography, Madam, describe her life. She died in Nice in 2015 at the age of 92, keeping many of her secrets to her grave.

French actress Karole Rocher is excellent in the title role and will probably garner a Cesar, the French equivalent of an Oscar, for her starring role as Madame Claude.

The young Garance Marillier, born in 1998, is excellent as Sidonie, the daughter of a diplomat. The enigmatic Sidonie puffs or pretends to puff a Virginia Slims most of the time. (I checked: the iconic cigarettes premiered in 1968, the time of the film.) Sidonie becomes Madame Claude's favorite Claudette and her confidante.

Because of some confusion in the script, I'd rate the film a B overall. It's worth watching, but not destined to become a classic. Netflix rates it "steamy" and "cerebral." Right, it probably is both.

Madame Claude (2021), dir. Sylvie Verheyde. I am not sure why this Netflix film has such a low rating at imdb. I found it to be, if not especially original, at least a plausible depiction of the world's oldest profession. There are quite a few films about brothels and madames, and it's true that this one does not chart any new territory with regard to the profession itself. Nonetheless, I found the acting decent and liked that the film was based on a true story and followed the entire trajectory of the life of Madame Claude.

Fernande Grudet's life is a fascinating story but the film falls short of making it compelling. The main focus is on the requisites of the sex sex trade: how she manages her burgeoning business and the growing power and influence that go with it. It does little to dive into the interesting characters that inhabit her story.

Given the story's potential, one could imagine dramatic encounters with the police and her influential clients. But when such opportunities arise, the encounters happen mostly matter-of-factly except for that memorable meeting of Sidonie and her father in the restaurant where he got his comeuppance.