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HOUSE OF SLEEPING BEAUTIES Send This Review to a Friend
This weird but oddly compelling German movie comes as close to necrophilia as one can get with the sexual object still alive. Angela Winkler portrays a madam who operates a brothel with a gimmick. Her young women are asleep, either feigning or drugged, and the client is able to spend the night doing what he will with them. None are supposed to awaken.
Writer-director Vadim Glowna, basing “House of Sleeping Beauties” on a novella by Yasunari Kawabata, also stars as Edmond, who is still dispirited at the deaths of his wife and daughter. Maximilian Schell in a rather undistinguished role as his friend decides that the brothel experience is just the right thing for Edmond. The visits begin.
But what is really going on in this odd brothel? We find that one girl doesn’t wake up, and she is taken away. Giving the prostitutes drugs can result in an overdose, and the madam is ruthlessly cool about it. She looks upon a death as part of the cost of doing business.
Edmond is getting more and more depressed, and taking his cue from the brothel, he calls the madam to discuss Edmond and what to do about him. A dark tone hovers over the film in look and subject. One may be repelled by the story idea, but nevertheless the film is attention grabbing. Only by all means, stay awake. A First Run Features release.
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