Special Treatment
Starring Isabelle Huppert, Bouli Lanners, Richard Debuisne, Sabila Moussadek, Valerie Dreville
Directed by Jeanne Labrune
In cinemas now
A comedy film about prostitutes and psychoanalysis? Surely only the French could do it, and so it is with this witty, not exactly hilarious, thought-provoking exploration of the overlap between the two professions.
In Special Treatment, Isabelle Huppert plays an aging specialist in fantasy prostitution, slowly growing weary of putting up with creeps but unable to see a way forward to a better life.
On the other side of the plot there is an aging male shrink, burnt out from years of dealing with obsessive compulsives and kicked out of home by his long-suffering wife.
What happens when they meet? Will they satisfy each other physically, emotionally and psychically?
Jeanne Labrune has great fun teasing the audience as she plays the story out.
The jokes are gentle and neither profession gets away with any of its pretentions intact.
This is an intellectually stimulating film, not a sexually titillating exploitation flick.