On the occasion of the release of “La Maison”, here are five things to know about this drama on prostitution led by Ana Girardot.
The House of Anissa Bonnefont
With Ana Girardot, Aure Atika, Rossy de Palma…
What is it about ? To write her new book, Emma decides to get hired as a prostitute in a brothel in Berlin.
Birth of the project
Rezo Films
Anissa Bonnefont met producer Clément Miserez at a dinner party. He had really liked his documentary Wonder Boy and offered him to adapt a book to the cinema: The House by Emma Becker. After two hours of reading, the filmmaker knew that she had the subject of her next film:
“However, several directors – all men – were already in line to sign the adaptation and, unfortunately for me, one of them had convinced Emma Becker to give him the rights. I was extremely disappointed but I I had the intimate feeling that the story was not going to end there!”
“Six months later, thanks to my agent Christelle Graillot, I learned that the rights to La Maison were once again free. And Emma wanted it to be me. plus is a documentary filmmaker with, as a result, a privileged relationship to reality was decisive in his choice.”
Document yourself
Rezo Films
At the start, Anissa Bonnefont said to herself that she especially needed to document herself with Emma Becker. Coming from documentary herself, the director also felt the need to have other sources of information and to meet other actors in this field:
“I then visited a brothel in Berlin, spoke with an SM dominatrix who was also my consultant for the role of Aure Atika. She taught him how to whip “in the rules of the art”, and We even attended a session!”she says, continuing:
“Once the shooting was over, and before tackling the editing, I felt the need to meet the members of STRASS, the Syndicat du Travail Sexuel, which defends the rights of sex workers. I learned a lot from our exchanges in particular on the nature of their claims.”
Who for Emma?
Rezo Films
Initially, during the writing, Anissa Bonnefont did not know who she was going to choose to play Emma. The filmmaker knew, however, that she needed an attractive young woman, who did not frighten other women and who could “to magnetize” men. She then thought of Ana Girardot:
“I offered her the role, and as soon as I had her in mind, I didn’t need an audition to confirm my impression. I find her very beautiful, but also accessible, and it was for me very important that it can be touching, with something different.”
“She ticked a lot of boxes to play Emma, even though she has a happier, lighter femininity than the main character in the novel. So I had her work with a Crazy Horse dancer to teach her a form of anchoring of the body and therefore a more assertive femininity.”
“This preparation gave her great strength and Ana found a lot of her character dancing while learning to stare at her interlocutor.”
A particular hotel
Rezo Films
Anissa Bonnefont not wanting to shoot in the studio, she put her camera in a large private mansion in Brussels: “For such an intimate story, I needed to be between old walls, which have a story. I needed something solid for the actors.”
“It’s also in the constraint – like that related to the arrangement of the walls – that we ask ourselves the right questions for the staging. I would add that we found other places, magnificent and unusual that I leave it to find out”she recalls.
Which pornstar is in the movie?
Rezo Films
Note the presence in the casting of Nikita Bellucci, a famous pornographic actress. Anissa Bonnefont discovered it thanks to an interview on Brut where she explained that she chose to do this job. She is also a committed woman who warns (among other things) of the dangers of free access to pornography:
“Through this choice, I also wanted to denounce the hypocrisy around prostitution which does not exist around porn. However, in both cases, the woman’s body is monetized. Porn is widely accepted by society. society, while prostitution remains a gigantic taboo”says the director.