Irina Palm
February 2009 Reviewed by: Charlotte Meyer Format: DVD	(all ratings out of 5): Overall Enjoyment Picture Quality Packaged Extras Sound Quality

In the late 1960s, when sex, drugs, and rock’n’roll comprised the axis of evil, Marianne Faithfull was its crown princess, as well as Mick Jagger’s mistress. In the early 1970s, she dropped out of sight and lived anonymously for a few years as a homeless person in Soho addicted to heroin. It is ironic then that in this film Marianne Faithfull, full-figured and 60, is playing the matronly Maggie, a proper English widow. Desperate for money and looking for work, she wanders through Soho. It is both ironic and comical when we see what kind of work she finds there.

Maggie has spent all she had on medical expenses for her terminally ill grandson. If the boy isn’t sent to Australia for special treatment within the next month, he will die. Her son and daughter-in-law have no way to raise the necessary money. When she sees a hand-lettered sign, "Hostess Required, Excellent Rates," she responds at once, descending the stairs into a business called Sexy World.

Sexy World is so unlike her world that Miki (Miki Manojlovic), the middle-aged owner, must explain to her that "hostess" is a euphemism for "prostitute." It’s a scene that might have been pitched for big laughs, but the director, Sam Garbarski, underplays the comedy in this moment (and many others like it). Maggie struggles to her feet when she realizes she’s in a sex club, but Miki insists on examining her hands. He finds them "smooth, very smooth" and asks, "Can you wank men off? Hands like yours are made for things like that." Of course she is horrified -- until it sinks in that he’d pay her £600 a week.

She takes the job, gets some training from a co-worker, and discovers that when she presses a buzzer in her dark little workroom a male organ will appear in a hole in the wall. She does so well at it that Miki gives her a stage name, Irina Palm. Men are already lined up when she arrives for work. She passes them anonymously, a mature, stout lady wearing sensible boots and carrying a handbag. Once in her workroom, she dons an apron and house slippers, sets out her thermos and Tupperware lunch, readies the Kleenex, and begins her day.

She tells no one where she’s working, not even her son, certainly not the gossiping ladies in her bridge club. She dodges questions about the arm sling she wears for her "penis elbow." Discovery is inevitable, though, when she presents her son the money in a thick lump sum, and from this point on the plot runs its inevitable romantic course. The denouement includes reconciliation with her outraged son, a good prognosis for the sick child, and a delicious public put-down of a hypocritical lady friend. Best of all, love walks right in for the revitalized Maggie. All the fragments in this quirky plot are fitted neatly into place.

This must have been a difficult movie to shoot. For one thing, it was filmed in three countries: all exteriors in England, and interiors in Germany and Luxembourg. Much of it is set in the dark rooms of the sex club or on streets at night. Garbarski wanted "soft contrasts and living blacks" and developed the film slightly underexposed to get that effect. Viewers will have no sense that detail is lost. They may miss some of the dialogue though, especially Miki’s, because he speaks quietly and with an accent. The original score by Ghinzu at times embellishes the action and mood perhaps too literally. A disco phrase is a leitmotif that becomes a little tedious. There are no special features, only trailers.

Marianne Faithfull looks her 60 years. She looks a whole lot better than Mick Jagger, though, and the warmth and composure and compassion she brings to her portrayal of Maggie tell of a life well lived in the present.

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