Customer Reviews

House of the Sleeping Beauties

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They are indeed asleep. A widower of 15 years seeks solace in their unconscious company. He lies beside the beauty selected for him. He touches, caresses and occasionally kisses, while reflecting on his life and the prospect of death. There is nakedness but no eroticism. The touching and caressing (for which he is paying) seems like a form of tactile therapy. The madam muses openly, `he is a man not at peace with himself'; a confirmation of the therapeutic benefits of this arrangement perhaps. The reason for each girl's sleeping is revealed. If you are in the mood for an essentially sullen film then this is for you. It is, in essence, a prolonged conversation. It's much too clever for me to understand. Others might simply call it weird.

Ian Hunter.
Author of `e-Love'.

Although haunting and enigmatic are overused and trite terms often used in movie review hyperbole, sometimes they really fit to aptly describe a film. While 2006's "House of the Sleeping Beauties" was largely dismissed by critical consensus upon its release, I nevertheless found this to be a fascinating and frustrating contemplation of mortality and loneliness. The German film has an intriguing premise and, in truth, the plot may leave you a bit perplexed as it is only explored in the vaguest of terms. But still, there is something dark and truthful in the lead performance that brings more depth to the character development than to the bizarre narrative. And, for me, that made the film worthwhile.

This film is made in a tradition of the european fine cinema. It will attract audiences who are willing ot watch foreign film with subtitles, set is a tastefully arranged interiors of the mysterious house that represents fortress of sort.

Main character is Edmond, an elderly gentleman whose wife and daughter have died 15 years ago. No matter how much time has elapsed from their death, he is unable to shake off the thoughts of his wife's possible suicide in a calculated car crash that took her life and a life of their daughter Kiki. The violence of their death and his loneliness that persists propels him to go to a house of young prostitutes who are in deep sleep, carefully prepared for theie elderly male clients by their Madam. The house and sleeping young women become his obsession where he can relieve his enourmous emotional pain. However, as time goes by, he is unable to separate his own present from lives of young women and Madam who is mysterious, remote and pragmatically cold. The line between reality, his past, his subconscious desire for a life of innocence and purity he once knew long ago, is his own demise.

Film would have been so much better if the main character Edmond would not smoke in his scenes with sleeping women. It is almost as if the smoke that is all around Edmond and his surroundings is suffocating, kiling and corruptiong the beauty around him. Angela Winkler and Maximilan Schell are superb supporting cast of this very unusual film based on a short novella by Yasunari Kawabata.

This movie does have plenty of beautiful sleeping naked woman in it. But it stops there. The old man spends most of his time alone with them talking and rambling on about his life. So don't expect any somnophilia or nechrophilia scenes. Over all it is a descent movie because its well produced and the actors do a good job. Not a bad buy.

There were several questions that entered my mind, when I watched this movie,the number one was, who in the right mind green lights these projects.This movie is about a lonely old man, Vadim Glowna, who also happen to be the director. His wife has recently deceased and is suggested to visit a place for therapeutic reasons by his friend. Most of the movie is about him in this place, sleeping next to a bevy of sleepy young naked women and having conversations with them. You get glimpses of his life through these conversations but none that reveal anything that can keep you engaged.I researched this movie and I found that it is based on a short story by Japan's Nobel laureate Kawabata and such a place did exist in Berlin. I watched this movie because the NY Post gave it a high rating. I hated this movie, it is boring and pretentious. If there was a less than one star rating, this movie would have earned it hands down.....