The Arts section of the New York Times on Sunday carried a story about Bertrand Bonello's new film House of Pleasures. Because all of the action takes place in a brothel in fin de siecle Paris, the director, according to the article, studied paintings from that era in order to get just right the "attire, poses, quality of light."
I read this with proper admiration for Bonello's diligence and then, turning the pages, found the jump with a photo of the actresses. Except for the period dresses, they looked like runway models. The vulgar, voluptuous ladies of Toulouse-Lautrec had been replaced by skinny, long-limbed lettuce eaters. So much for attention to detail.
