Sex drama. Unrated. 1 hour, 36 minutes. At the Denver FilmCenter/Colfax.
Writer-director Jeanne Labrune affords Isabelle Huppert, arguably the finest French screen actress of her generation, yet another splendid role in the complex, compassionate and endlessly illuminating “Special Treatment.”
Huppert plays Alice, an art-history major who years ago became a high-priced Paris prostitute specializing in kinky clients who require elaborate role-playing on her part. She is a coolly proud, fearless woman, confident of her looks and abilities even as she approaches 50, though she finds it increasingly difficult to deny that her soul is withering away.
She crosses paths with Xavier (Bouli Lanners), a bulky and bearded middle-aged psychiatrist who is also feeling burned out. He’s dealing with a nagging wife and patients who are totally self-absorbed — not so different from Alice’s clients. This is a serious film, but Labrune allows a touch of dark comedy in her depictions of Alice’s clients and Xavier’s patients.
Alice has been playing roles for so long, she is at a loss as to how to be herself with Xavier, which is what he craves from her.
“Special Treatment” concentrates more on Alice than Xavier in their struggles to work their way through their respective midlife crises. Their journeys are sharply yet kindly observed.
