{"id":2401,"date":"2010-09-13T13:31:19","date_gmt":"2010-09-13T13:31:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/?p=2401"},"modified":"2015-03-30T13:27:12","modified_gmt":"2015-03-30T13:27:12","slug":"tiff-tale-of-sex-and-shrinks-lacks-energy-and-wit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/?p=2401","title":{"rendered":"TIFF FILM REVIEW: Jeanne Labrune\u2019s &#8216;Special Treatment&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/specialtreatmentcliff.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-2402\" title=\"specialtreatmentcliff\" src=\"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/specialtreatmentcliff.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"299\" height=\"407\" srcset=\"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/specialtreatmentcliff.jpg 299w, https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/specialtreatmentcliff-220x300.jpg 220w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 299px) 100vw, 299px\" \/><\/a>By Ray Bennett<\/p>\n<p>TORONTO \u2013 Parisian sophistication is hard work in Jeanne Labrune\u2019s ineffectual \u201cSpecial Treatment,\u201d which attempts to explore the similarities between prostitution and psychoanalysis.<\/p>\n<p>Isabelle Huppert plays a 40-ish uptown hooker bored with her chosen career path who decides that seeing a psychiatrist will help her break free.<\/p>\n<p>The woman\u2019s roundelay of johns and shrinks soon becomes tiresome, however, and with neither great insight nor any sign of wit, the film is not likely to capture interest outside France.<\/p>\n<p>Alice (Huppert) is a matter-of-fact practitioner who uses her own name to meet clients who arrive only by appointment following a recommendation from someone she knows.<\/p>\n<p>Her initial encounters with potential customers take place in the bars of swank hotels where the woman arrives dressed plainly and without makeup. She seems almost bored as she runs down the activities she has on offer and the price list.<\/p>\n<p>Among the analysts she seeks out are Xavier (Bouli Lanners), who is also tired of his chosen profession to the point that his wife (Valerie Dreville), also a shrink, boots him out. When Xavier meets Alice, it\u2019s a coin toss as to who is really wishing to employ whom.<\/p>\n<p>Huppert plays the role in a subdued manner that does not provide the spark that the situations require although she\u2019s up against it given the remarkably dull script.<\/p>\n<p>Venue: Toronto International Film Festival; Sales: Films Boutique;\u00a0Production companies: Artemis Productions, Art-Light; Productions, Liaison Cinematique, Samsa Film; Cast: Isabelle Huppert, Bouli Lanners, Richard Debuisne, Sabila Moussadek, Valerie Dreville; Director, screenwriter: Jeanne Labrune ; Screenwriter: Richard Debuisne; Producer: Jani Thiltges; Director of photography: Virginie Saint-Martin; Production designer: Regine Constant; Music: Andre Mergenthaler; Editor: Anja Ludcke; No rating, running time 95 minutes.<\/p>\n<p>This review appears in <a href=\"http:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/review\/special-treatment-film-review-30034\">The Hollywood Reporter<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Ray Bennett TORONTO \u2013 Parisian sophistication is hard work in Jeanne Labrune\u2019s ineffectual \u201cSpecial Treatment,\u201d which attempts to explore the similarities between prostitution and psychoanalysis. Isabelle Huppert plays a 40-ish uptown hooker bored with her chosen career path who &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/?p=2401\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,14,1770],"tags":[403,1315,1316,1192],"class_list":["post-2401","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-film","category-reviews","category-tiff-toronto-international-film-festival","tag-bouli-lanners","tag-isabelle-huppert","tag-jeanne-labrune","tag-toronto-international-film-festival"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2401","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2401"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2401\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6643,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2401\/revisions\/6643"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2401"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2401"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2401"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}