Inside a strip club… A my only desire, a sexy and queer film, to discover at the cinema this Wednesday, with Zita Hanrot and Louise Chevillotte, directed by Lucie Borleteau (Fidelio, Chanson gentle).
What is it about ?
Have you ever been to a strip club? But you’ve already wanted to… at least once… you didn’t dare, that’s all. This film tells the story of someone who dared.
A few months after the release of La Maison with Ana Girardot who offered us to discover the interior of a brothel, here is A my only desire, which invites us to the heart of another kept secret place and source of fantasies: a club of striptease.
The film To My Only Desire, whose name comes from the place where the plot takes place, begins like this: by addressing us directly, the spectators, with the promise of making us discover this place and especially these women who make it the soul.
“I’m not so wise”: Ana Girardot gets naked in La Maison, prohibited for children under 16
If A my only desire has points in common with La Maison (a very sexy side assumed, a gallery of characters and a very documented statement), the comparison stops there. This original scenario co-written by Lucie Borleteau and Clara Bourreau takes a different turn from the first, avoiding as much as possible the gloomy or violent situations that the brothel could depict, and branching off into a queer romance. A my only desire is prohibited for children under 12, while the previous one was banned for children under 16.
Distribution Pyramid Zita Hanrot in A my only desire
Two plots intertwine in Lucie Borleteau’s film, the life of the club, and this love story between two of the film’s protagonists. “After discovering the strip club, Clara Bourreau and I decided that the love story between
Aurora and Mia was going to take over and we were going to explore every corner of it. I wanted it to be a surprise for the viewer, because it’s one for the characters themselves, who don’t see this love coming. The red thread remains the chronicle of the life of a young woman over a few months“, explains Lucie Borleteau in the film’s press kit.
Show funny, inventive striptease shows
About a rather joyful approach to this plot, the filmmaker specifies: “Despite the thriving porn industry on the Internet, there are still places like the one shown in the film. I was interested in being on the side of the real rather than the virtual. I wanted the film to also be entertainment, showing funny, inventive striptease shows. There is the idea of a joyful sexuality! To My Only Desire is also a film about theatre, about the artifice of the stage.“
Distribution Pyramid
Louise Chevillotte in A my only desire
The film is meant to be a tale in a way, and its narration begins (and ends) like a tale. “The baroque side of the film allowed me to dare everything. The idea that women might want to put their bodies on display has always fascinated me. In art in general, and cinema in particular, the female body has been widely used as an element of enchantment, as a loss leader, with variations depending on the era..” And to add: “The film therefore constantly plays between story and reality, to question our relationship to desire, whether we seek to arouse it or whether it overwhelms us.“
The film constantly plays between story and reality, to question our relationship to desire.
This ode to freedom features a lot of nudity, a subject that has been taken into consideration so that the actresses can move freely. “I was well aware that this film could be scary, and I felt that Louise [Chevillotte] and Zita [Hanrot] had the audacity and the courage to dive into it together. (…) They were on an equal footing while seeming to have never met and to owe everything to the fortuitous side of the club.
For me that makes this couple modern and interesting. Their relationship is not about power.”
Zita Hanrot says: “Lucy [Borleteau] approaches nudity with great joy. She has a lightness, a generosity, a gluttony that inspires confidence. Because it’s her, I was able to tame my fears and I wanted to follow her. It also leaves room for our imagination to feed the story and that’s very pleasant.“.
Our portrait of Zita Hanrot:
“We have been very careful to choose the most respectful and respectful actors and actresses, continues the filmmaker. The CNC sexual and gender-based violence training that my producer took proved to be a great toolkit for our shoot. We had written a letter to the attention of the whole team, including the actors and actresses, on this question before the start of filming, and Colia became our harassment referent on the set. For everyone to be confident, she had, during the cast for extras, met with her assistant Naomi Grand each extra individually for the club scenes to avoid any potential problem – which to my knowledge never is done for extras“.
Zita Hanrot (Fatima, Plan Coeur, Rouge) replies to Louise Chevillotte, discovered at Philippe Garrel, in Lover for a day in 2017. We have since seen her in Synonymes, Le Sel des tears, Benedetta, Le World after us, or the series Les Hautesherbes. Laure Giappiconi, Pedro Casablanc, Thimotée Robart (Les Magnétiques), and Melvil Poupaud for a small role, complete the cast.
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The final word to Lucie Borleteau: “I expect a film, including mine, to be complex, unexpected and moving… like a striptease act can be“!
To find out, go to the dark rooms this Wednesday, to discover A my only desire.