Huora (1991) DVD

Waiting for business, hooker Theresa Russell talks directly to the camera, docudrama-style. This extended conversation with the audience continues throughout the movie. Russell's life is a grim one, and she never knows when her next client will be her last. At one point, a nervous boy in a van invites her in. She's grabbed by hidden passengers and gang-raped. Most dangerous of all is pimp Benjamin Mouton, a psychotic harpie who constantly screeches up in his sports car, grabs her earnings and beats her for good measure. In a better mood, he takes her to a tattoo parlour. He gives pain even when he's treating. "Whore" is wedged firmly between the theatres of absurd and cruelty. Humour interrupts brutality -- which then interrupts it back. "Tricks!" Russell says, after the rape episode. "They're so unpredictable". Her street knowledge is sad and wise. She used to like sex, until she realized most men bought her services not for pleasure, but for revenge. She sees the hate in their eyes. She understands prostitution sometimes isn't about sex at all, but about power... Adapted from the David Hines play "Bondage", this is Ken Russell's gritty rebuke to the sugar-coated sentimentality of Julia Roberts' "Pretty Woman". After "Whore" received an 18-Certificate compared to the 15-Cert of "Pretty Woman", Ken Russell complained that the ratings system penalised his movie because it told the truth, while rewarding "Pretty Woman" for glamorising prostitution. He may have a point, but then again "Pretty Woman" was about a character who lived in a fluffy 15-Cert world, whereas "Whore" is about a woman who lives in the real one...