MovieChat Forums > The Feast of All Saints (2001) Discussion > Placage or Prostitution??

Placage or Prostitution??

posted 12 years ago by nicci212000
7 replies | jump to latest

One question, I had never heard of placage, so I read some articles online about the history of this custom. The articles I read did not clarify whether these situations were also purely sexual in nature. Meaning did these placages also have situations where the man only slept with the woman and did not provide for her?. Like prostitution. One article I read said that Placage was not prostitution, but that the new French and spanish settlers came to America without companionship and wanted a woman. It also stated that some of them did not go on to marry white women, but stayed with the color women. It also stated free financially fit black men were not in abundance so color women were seeking other men. Then in the very same article it stated that some of the Quadroom balls got wild and some even turned into Orgies. So yea,the article was contradicting to say the least.

In the movie, Dolly Rose told Christoff that Cecile decided it was best for her not to associate with Dolly Rose anymore. I don't understand why she stopped associating with Dolly Rose since Placages were supposedly acceptable. Dolly Rose was merely setting up placages, no? I was a little confused because Dolly Rose's seemed more like a live in Placage or a whore house rather than the ball where Cecile met Phillipe. Why were the girls living there? Dolly Rose also told Anna Belle that she risked her reputation by coming to her place. Why would she be risking her reputation by going to Dolly Rose's when she ( Anna Belle) was also in a Placage of her own with Michi Vince? Then Marie, when traumatized was stating that she belonged in Dolly Rose's house because of the sexual desire that she felt when she was with Richard. Then Richard's father said that Marie had made a mistake by going to Lola Dede and then to Dolly Rose's(as if it was disgraceful). It just seems that the characters associated stigma and negativity with Dolly Rose's. Was it a prosituion house?

Sorry this was so long, I just wanted to give the background information to support my questions.

[–] DarkSidegirl_26 12 years ago

Let's call a spade a spade, the placage... well depicted in this film is the classier version of prostitution. Someone is rendering their services and the other is paying for it. Whether they decide to continue the relationship (i.e. the server and the payee) and the ladies who set up these relationships were honestly no better then pimps. Granted, as in life, not everything is just black and white (no pun intended) so there is a blurred gray area between the traditional view of what prostitution is and what these women were doing or, due to their circumstances, forced to do to survive.

I masturbate a lot

[–] nicci212000 12 years ago

Darksidegirl--

Thanks for the response. I guess you are right about calling a spade, a spade and the services being rendered.

Dolly Rose's seemed like a whore house(I don't mean to be harsh or rude. I can't think of a politically correct term for it.)to me.

[–] DarkSidegirl_26 12 years ago

I guess there's a sense of superiority among the women (entertaining one man versus several of them which in the book and film is what Dolly seems to do hence the attitude towards her).

It's a very complicated system that has a myriad layers and at the end of the day how one views the women in these films is based upon perception. Your welcome, I recently discovered the book upon my anne rice obsession and was intrigued by the idea that you have a historical film involving black characters who break the mold of historical black characters in American films by not being slaves or the main plot revolving around the race problem but other topics as well.

I masturbate a lot

[–] LilRed_RoRo 11 years ago

Meaning did these placages also have situations where the man only slept with the woman and did not provide for her?. Like prostitution.

If the man is not providing for her (ie not giving her anything in exchange for sleeping with him) then that's definitely not prostitution. Prostitution is when you exchange sex for a payment. That just sounds like casual sex.

One article I read said that Placage was not prostitution, but that the new French and spanish settlers came to America without companionship and wanted a woman. It also stated that some of them did not go on to marry white women, but stayed with the color women. It also stated free financially fit black men were not in abundance so color women were seeking other men. Then in the very same article it stated that some of the Quadroom balls got wild and some even turned into Orgies. So yea,the article was contradicting to say the least.

I don't see why you think that is contradictory - having an orgy is not the same as prostitution, unless the girls were being paid to engage in the orgy. It seems a bit like you're confusing casual sex and prostitution.

From what I've read, the French men weren't expected to marry until they were in their early 30s and the French women wouldn't have sex until they were married so the French men would take up a black or mixed race common-law wife or mistress (placage). Sometimes the man would marry the girl, usually he would marry a French girl when he was older and either keep his mistress/common-law wife as well or end the arrangement with her. In some cases, the men were more in love with their mistress/common-law wife (as in this film) and that would actually be the more dominant relationship. Other times it would have been just a sexual thing. I supposed that's up to you if you consider that prostitution, it would probably depend on the nature of the relationship.

In the movie, Dolly Rose told Christoff that Cecile decided it was best for her not to associate with Dolly Rose anymore. I don't understand why she stopped associating with Dolly Rose since Placages were supposedly acceptable. Dolly Rose was merely setting up placages, no? I was a little confused because Dolly Rose's seemed more like a live in Placage or a whore house rather than the ball where Cecile met Phillipe. Why were the girls living there? Dolly Rose also told Anna Belle that she risked her reputation by coming to her place. Why would she be risking her reputation by going to Dolly Rose's when she ( Anna Belle) was also in a Placage of her own with Michi Vince? Then Marie, when traumatized was stating that she belonged in Dolly Rose's house because of the sexual desire that she felt when she was with Richard. Then Richard's father said that Marie had made a mistake by going to Lola Dede and then to Dolly Rose's(as if it was disgraceful). It just seems that the characters associated stigma and negativity with Dolly Rose's. Was it a prosituion house?

I'm pretty sure Dolly Rose owned a brothel for creole/mixed race girls and the customers would have been wealthy white men. In a review of the book on goodreads.com it says "There was Dolly Rose, the beautiful yet self destructive quadroon beauty who had to bury her only child at such a young age and later establishes a brothel." Hope that helped!

[–] 11 years ago

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[–] LiteraryLane 8 years ago

You posted this a while ago, but you are correct. We don't see Dolly's backstory in this movie. She was in a placage with Vincent before he was with Anna Bella. Her daughter dies and her arrangement with Vincent ends. She turns her home into a brothel afterwards.

[–] jayghani 8 years ago

In Placage you are an ongoing mistress, treated as a wife without the legal connection. It is the same as a courtesan. Dolly Rose made a straight up whorehouse because she was tired of the hypocrisy of placage.