SEX AND MRS X
2000, 100 minutes, Colour.
Jacqueline Bisset, Linda Hamilton, Paolo Seganti, Peter Mac Neill.
Directed by Arthur Allan Seidelman.
Sex and Mrs X plays as if it was based on a women’s magazine article, designed solely for women readers and viewers. In fact, it is.
The film focuses on Linda Hamilton as a New York journalist with the possibility of doing an interview with Paris’s most famous madam, Madame Simone, played with aplomb by Jacqueline Bisset. At first she is hesitant. Disillusioned after ten years of marriage and her husband having an affair, she decides to take on the mission.
Most of the film is the interaction between Madame Simone and the journalist. The journalist is sceptical, seeing Madame as a pimp. However, this is somewhat Pretty Woman territory, and Madame is really a matchmaker, using her extensive wealth, style and taste, her home in Paris, to groom young women to be escorts, companions – and then wives. It all seems very benign. And Jacqueline Bisset carries it all off with beauty and charm.
However, she has her own problems, her husband walking out on her twenty-five years earlier.
Needless to say, the journalist asks a lot of questions, has different experiences, sees through her disillusionment, has many conversations with Madame, has an affair with her photographer for the article, has a makeover in a glamorous style. She also realises more about herself, returns with the article, encounters her unfaithful husband, there seems to be a possibility of a reconciliation, however she is now her own woman, they divorce – and she faces her future.
The topic and the treatment is very much geared to a popular women’s audience. It would be interesting to do an interview with men in the audience afterwards and whether they were convinced, changed, or bemused.
1. The popularity of this kind of television film? Female audiences? Male audiences? Age target? Middle age?
2. The New York settings? The world of popular magazines? The surprise party? Life at home for Joanna? The contrast with Paris, the city, its glamour? Madame Simone’s home? The lavish interiors? Costumes and decor? The film as a showcase for women’s fashions?
3. Joanna, her age, the ten years, the surprise party, her husband, his talking to his assistant? Her questions? The commission, her lack of interest, her judgment on Madame Simone? Interactions with Harry? Her confronting her husband, the separation? Her decision to go to Paris?
4. Joanna in Paris, her scepticism, the initial meeting with Madame Simone, emptying her purse, passing the test? Her growing fascination? The conversations? Her self-revelation? Her interest in the women, the girl preparing to be married, the wedding dress? The other women? Madame’s explanations? Joanna and her decision to have the makeover? The effect on her? Her working for Francesco, the discussions? His charm, the dinner? Her posing and the photos? The affair? With Madame, the marriage? Her finishing her article, her change and return? With Harry? The meeting with her husband, the lunch, the possible reconciliation? The divorce and her future?
5. Madame, Jacqueline Bisset’s style? Her background, her husband leaving, her reminiscences about her story? Her decisions to have the house, the escorts, her wealth, her taste, choosing clothes, parties, guests? Her interest in Joanna, their discussions, her revealing something of herself? Her challenges to Joanna? Joanna and her research for Simone’s husband, his coming back, Simone being taken aback, coping with the situation, the dance? The news of the wedding – and Joanna being matron of honour?
6. Francesco, charm, the photographer, the relationship with Joanna?
7. Dale, ten years of marriage, his roving eye? The surprise party? His explanations of himself to Joanna? The separation? The luncheon, the seeming meeting of minds? Divorce?
8. Harry, the magazine, editorial, commissions?
9. The background in Paris, the characters in Paris? A different world? French moral perspectives compared with those of the United States? Popular magazine-style morals?
