where she is admiring the other female students and the purses and clothes they wore. Was this her sole reason for continueing because she wanted to keep up with the Jones?
" Benny, you silly great fat article"
I'd say so. Just look how she was when she saw the laptop for sale in the pamphlet.
So much money for minor sex acts looked too good.
I think that's what they were driving at, yes. Which is why Benjamin starts to flip his lid when he finds out she's buying designer clothes. He was okay with it when she was doing it to survive, but doing it to give herself creature comforts was too much.
shareI agree with the other posts, but I also felt like there was somewhat of a rationalization, like, 'look at all the girls with expense clothes and bags. Others must be doing it, so it must be ok.' This scene was right after she had talked online to the other girl, and also at the end they mentioned the study that showed that 45,000 students had partiicipated in some form of prostitution.
shareI thought the whole film was a political diatribe. Also it seemed from the beginning she had some problems relating to men in general I give it 4 thumbs down
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you are absolutely right- all she ever did was get that one fancy green jacket, it once like her pacifier, her security blanket, her one fancy piece of fantasy that she could hold onto- part of the "dream"- here she was barely head over water in debt, and as she just started to get enough to get along while being severly traumatized and raped by a sadist at the same time, she found one special thing she could hold onto- it was like the coat IRONICALLY became the promise that she was going to make it to Paris- and look, after all the cruelty, humiliation and conning she suffered, she calloused up and did. But of course she wasn't after a glamorous lifestyle of prostitution becuause she never glammed up outside of the coat- she never got fancy makeup or hair or continuued to collect a savvy wardrobe- from what we understand, she only became savvy after moviing to Paris! She just wanted to become a successful college graduate , and it was the trauma of the sadistic old man that truly, IMO, led her down the path (especially with no intervention or therapy of any kind) to then become to professional escort,. That is so common for sexual trauma victims.
I thought this movie was superb.
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I agree with Joshua Craven. The context cited regarding the skype session with the "pro-student" in Paris immediately precedes the hallway scene. Indeed, our heroine's mood seems to have lifted as she mulled this new rationalization. The justification would go something like this, "the pretty girl in Paris uses her assets, all these other pretty girls are getting over in one way or another by means of their youthful appearance and their implicit or explicit sexuality, there is nothing wrong with me."
The context of the following scenes shows "Laura" with a little more swagger in her walk and in her work.
I found her to be a sad, but compelling protagonist, whom I identified with (so the director succeeded with me on that level).
Also, I have never used a "pro". I have never given it much thought, but during the movie I found myself trying to think like a "john". Despite the fact that Laura was highly desireable for the very reasons the johns cited (innocent, unspoiled, demure, pretty, etc.), Laura's original plight left me unable to sympathize with the johns at all. So I guess I would never use a pro, even a "hardened' or "clinically detached" one.
Were I single and in college...I would have used all my masculine might and machismo trying to bed a woman like Laura on regular terms, then again, I found most college girls pretty easy to bed when I was that age. ;) Just keepin it real, yo!