I have no idea why I came up with this summary line - well I have some idea. Considering what the movie is about and all that. This depicts a certain woman and how she made her living and what an adventure her life was. Quite a few have at least heard her name - but how much do they actually know about her? Some I assume know so much, that they will be able to say where the movie took creative license - as you can tell I am not one of those people.

I am also not one of the people who has issues with nudity and sexuality in movies. And there is quite a lot of that in here - which is not a surprise - unless you didn't know anything about that woman of course. Of course someone else who may have issues and is more sensible and still reads as little as I do ... well we all have different views. So I'd understand if you don't like it like that. I also understand that the true nature of the movie and the moving through the years makes the pacing of the movie unbearable to some ... it's a drama you see?

With a little bit of political historical knowledge, or experienced the revolutionary days of 1968 at the universities of france, then you may nod secretly acclaiming for yourself that'' these where the days''...

for the foreigner pompido is a relative unknown figure , degaulle do ring a belle', avenue de pigalle i had on a poster far back in the past, and sexuality and eroticism has always been a trademark for paris, and its interesting to see how sexual trafficking at the local meat market could do as much harm as a war could do.

But its a mess of a movie, naked girls 'en masse', hornication and fornication and copulation on a vast register of variants, you can sense the thrills of the era, but misses to do the deepdive into the material. The humanlessness of a rotten life at the center of a womans body well presented, but not nurished nor well constructed.

Acting is at a good average, no more that the screenplay, and direction can evolute, but its on many paths extremely diluted and non sensic, and you ask yourself why make a film like this. Is it for the history book or is it a biographical work, senselessy told by a woman that built her empire on lies, from day one?!

Well its entertainment folks, ill land on a 5 stars, at the border of neverthelessness, with a little recommend from the grumpy old man.

If you watch this movie you're probably aware of the overdose of sleazy you'll be experiencing. While I could accept the sex scenes that go with the territory, I wasn't prepared to deal with the disjoint, pedestrian editing.

Madame Claude is the occasional voice over, but her narrative is unreliable. For instance, she mentions she started her "career" as a prostitute (not much of a surprise) and we're shown a scene in the past where she defended a colleague from a customer's beating. You might assume Madame is against violence, but immediately after, one of her "girls" is subject to brutal beating and Madame comment is just "Wash and have a good sleep to forget about it".

Then she proclaims she doesn't have the time for a "love story" and immediately after she's hooking up with a sleazy guy. The lack of consistency is not the only problem, the editing goes from past to present with no logic; the character of Madame's daughter is introduced for no reason and then abandoned; the sex scenes are way too frequent, so that the movie is more a soft porn that doesn't need a plot than a legitimate film.