News Archive
2010
2009
Movies - Monday, September 7
The Age
Thursday September 3, 2009
Princesses (2005)SBS Two, 9.00pmTHE world's oldest profession has rarely been treated objectively by the arts, ranging from the frenzied Puritanism of Lukas Moodysson (Lilja 4-ever) and Stieg Larsson (The Girl who Played with Fire) to the glossy romanticisations of Hollywood (Pretty Woman). It took the calm clarity of Australia's Kate Holden with her best-selling memoir In My Skin to help get things back into perspective. Holden wrote from experience, something lacking in most film treatments. Fernando Leon de Aranoa's Princesses is a fortunate exception, a film about working-class escorts in Madrid that rings absolutely true. Caye (Candela Pena) hides her profession from her family, not that they seem to care that much, her mother living in crazed denial about her husband's death and the others seemingly happy in their self-contained worlds. Caye works by appointment and makes a tolerable income but illegal immigrants are working the streets and taking away business. Is Caye's anger simply annoyance at unfair market forces or deep-seated racism? She will find out when her world overlaps with Dominican Zulema (Micaela Nevarez) and a friendship tentatively forms. Told in a semi-documentary fashion, this film captures beautifully the tortures of the workplace and the occasional pleasures of female camaraderie. A few years ago, a poll of ex-Soviet high-school girls revealed that 75 per cent considered prostitution their career of choice. Princesses may make some feel slightly less enthusiastic. SCOTT MURRAY
© 2009 The Age