Acensbart Excellent but underrated film

Kien Navarro Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

Kaelan Mccaffrey Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

Kamila Bell This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

Dave This is a very good film about a Los Angeles street prostitute. It has sex scenes and lots of dark humour.Theresa Russell gives a brilliant performance as the protagonist Liz - she often talks to the camera inbetween looking for clients.It's a lot better than Pretty Woman.

MARIO GAUCI Although he continued to work profusely in the medium which gave him his start, this was the last proper theatrical film for Ken Russell until 2002's semi-amateurish THE FALL OF THE LOUSE OF USHER (which, perhaps unsurprisingly, did become his feature-length swan song for the silver screen); given its theatrical origins as a British play called "Bondage" – written by a former taxi driver and basing it on stories he was told by his own streetwalking customers! – it is not as visually stylized as the movies the director is most renowned – or vilified – for but he still opens it out somewhat by shooting it on location in Los Angeles Appropriately enough, it stars American actress Theresa Russell (no relation to the director) who, at the time of shooting, was married to Ken's chief rival for the title of the most visionary British film-maker of his era, Nicolas Roeg who, like Ken, had a penchant for turning pop idols into tentative and temporary film stars!The seedy world of pimps, prostitutes and "tricks" is right up Ken's alley and one he had already visited more effectively 7 years previously in one of his most notorious films, CRIMES OF PASSION; tellingly, this more realistic treatment went by almost unnoticed. In fact, Theresa tells her story in flashback and often resorts to interacting with the audience (as it were) by directly speaking to the camera in lengthy monologues. Among the episodes in her past life that are depicted is a marriage to a boozing hunk (hilariously, he comes home one day, when she is almost at the end of her pregnancy and, despite her having diligently prepared his meal, he proceeds to puke into his salad bowl!); earlier on, the first 'client' she meets is a puking tramp lying on the pavement and then a colored, perennially barefooted street-performing masochist (played by Antonio Fargas from TV's STARSKY AND HUTCH) who becomes a recurring presence throughout the film…as does an Indian bike-rider who insists Theresa foregoes the 'rubber' if she agrees to take him on as a customer (which, naturally, doom his prospects)! After much abuse suffered from plying her trade on the streets – getting gangbanged in a van and thanklessly dumped on the pavement, after which she is cared for by a kindly Jack Nance – she is 'tricked' {sic} (through the staging of a rescue from a would-be attempted rape inside a car) into employing a seemingly classy but sadistic thug as her pimp (Benjamin Mouton); he takes her out to an elegant dinner (served by an uncredited – and sarcastic – Ken Russell himself!) but, obviously, she is no 'fair lady' and proceeds to make an ass of him in front of the other diners. He soon pays her back with dividends by brutishly interrupting the temporary idyll with a friendly dyke into which she had eventually escaped. Like Kathleen Turner's character in CRIMES OF PASSION before her (incidentally, as an in-joke, a porn movie on the marquee is called "China Blue" – which had actually been the title under which that film was released in Italy!), "Liz" is also into servicing old men: one is a regular inside an old people's home – with a bunch of nearby resting residents as gleeful 'witnesses'; the other dies on the 'job' – at which point the pimp reappears...but so does Fargas who swiftly saves the day by slitting the latter's throat!For the record, the most notable films to revolve exclusively around the milieu of prostitutes are most of Kenji Mizoguchi's films featuring downtrodden geishas, Federico Fellini's NIGHTS OF CABIRIA (1957), Jean-Luc Godard's VIVRE SA VIE (1962) and Luis Bunuel's BELLE DE JOUR (1967); this is not to say that WHORE in any way ever approaches their level of artistry but, one thing it certainly has that they do not is an amusingly crude and sexist Ska theme tune called "Doing The Bang" sung over the opening and closing credits by an anonymous band called Fascinating Force! By the way, for this viewing I again had to acquire at the very last minute a superior copy to the one I had originally owned (since the latter was evidently edited – running 78 minutes against its official length of 85) and, for what it is worth, the film is also available in one full segment on "You Tube"!

fedor8 Pretty much trash, with Ken Russell once again making a film that doesn't seem to belong to any particular genre. However, this particular Russell film is quite watchable and has some good scenes. There isn't much of a plot going on, but it's rather a collection of brief situations. There is always something going on, and it even makes for, sort of, laid-back viewing in spite of the content. Whereas in most of Russell's (early) films the actors spend 90% of their time flailing about with their arms and doing head-stands, and just generally being frantic, manic, and silly, there is none of that here - although Theresa Russell is rather animated throughout; but she acts like this to heighten the comedic effect, not to be annoying. There are some funny moments, and though she seems to be in nearly every shot of the picture one never tires of her. Apart from his movies, further proof that Russell has to be insane is his participation in Celebrity Big Brother.

shepardjessica-1 Ken Russell who made major films like WOMEN IN LOVE and THE DEVILS apparently burnt out by the time he got to TOMMY (bad ghoulash!!!), except for this sly, trembling, subtle and street piece with Theresa Russell (with able support from Jack Nance briefly) that bombed critically and ..duh..financially in the early 90's.Totally under-rated and stylistic in a Bunuel sort of way, this walk down the boulevard..partly because of the casting of Ms. Russell (Nicholas Roeg's wife; still I believe), makes this almost realistic in David Lynch way without a million characters.She talks to the audience (ala ALFIE) style, bad things happen, lonely Roy Orbison-type streets, and a crescendo that is totally unexpected. Ms. Russell is beyond the pale in this one and grabs you with silky, stuttering, and flexible grace as she draws you in to her tale of woe that you think you know the end to. . . . NOT! Find this one credible and bewildering piece of Americana and you may find a cul-de-sac to park it on.. if you like low-budget cool, hip, and demented cinema. Theresa Russell should have been nominated in '91, but you know how it goes. Oh well!