Prostitute | |
---|---|
Directed by | Tony Garnett |
Screenplay by | Tony Garnett |
Produced by | Tony Garnett |
Starring | Eleonor Forsythe Kate Crutchley |
Cinematography | Charles Stewart Diane Tammes |
Edited by | Bill Shapter |
Music by | The Gangsters |
Production company | Kestrel Films |
Release date |
|
Running time | 97 minutes |
Country | England |
Language | English |
Prostitute is a 1980 British drama film, the directorial debut of Tony Garnett who also wrote and produced the film. [1]
The film tells the story of Sandra (Eleanor Forsythe), "an ambitious working girl who moves to London." [2]
In Birmingham, several prostitutes know and look out for one another. One, Sandra, has a child, and ambitions to advance beyond just taking street pickups. Her acquaintance Rose, who lives with her mother (who may also have been a prostitute in her youth) and has multiple children, is arrested by the vice squad when she was otherwise walking home and not actively seeking clients. She is pressured into taking a guilty plea and is sentenced to three months in prison. Their mutual friend Louise, a social worker who shares a flat with Sandra, is upset by how the working-class women are harassed by police and are unaware of the rights they have under the law. She recruits Rose's mother to urge other local prostitutes to build a discussion group where they can eventually lobby to change the laws; Louise, friendly enough with Sandra that she takes her as a guest to a wedding, tries to enlist her as well, but Sandra seeks to find better paying sex work in London. Louise, in her research, meets Griff, a lecturer on penal reform, who takes an interest in her cause, but in attempting to summarize its significance, shows himself to have no real knowledge of sex workers' lives. Nonetheless, she is attracted to him, and invites him to stay the night with her, briefly meeting Sandra in the process.
After meeting Andrea, a London-based sex worker, at a business event where several regional prostitutes have been recruited, Sandra decides to decamp to London, making arrangements with Louise and a longtime friend, Winston, to look after her teenage son. Andrea steers Sandra to work as a dubious massage provider for abrasive local boss Mrs. "T" (whom Andrea herself split from acrimoniously), and warns her no favors will be made for her under her employ. Sandra works an increasingly dour array of clients who treat her in hostile manners she never experienced in Birmingham, to the point where she angrily quits Mrs. T's employ, and in turn, Andrea cuts ties with her. When she tries to go fully independent, corrupt vice police invade her apartment without warrant, plant drugs on the premises, and then demand all her money and free sexual services in order to avoid arrest.
Louise faces pressure from her superior, who suggests she is getting too involved with her specific body of sex workers, but otherwise, her activism draws in more local prostitutes, and reserved interest from the city's local MP. Rose is released from her sentence, and happily rejoins her mother and their extended family of sex workers. Louise attracts interest from the BBC to make a documentary about her cause, but cautiously grills their researcher to make sure the women that have earned her trust will not be exploited in the quest for sensationalist TV. Quietly, Sandra returns to Birmingham, and while she misses out on seeing her son, goes to a park and helps other children on swings, demonstrating her parental empathy is still intact.
Many scenes were shot on location in Balsall Heath, Birmingham's former red-light district. Garnett wrote, produced and directed the film, shooting for six weeks, with a script based on meticulous research conducted over four years and a close collaborative working relationship with Programme for Reform of the Law on Soliciting (PROS) whose growing campaign for changes in the law Garnett positively recognized as a result of his experience making the film. [3]
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Prostitution is the business or practice of engaging in sexual activity in exchange for payment. The definition of "sexual activity" varies, and is often defined as an activity requiring physical contact with the customer. The requirement of physical contact also creates the risk of transferring infections. Prostitution is sometimes described as sexual services, commercial sex or, colloquially, hooking. It is sometimes referred to euphemistically as "the world's oldest profession" in the English-speaking world. A person who works in this field is called a prostitute, and sometimes a sex worker, but the words hooker and whore are also sometimes used to describe those who work as prostitutes.
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Clients of prostitutes or sex workers are sometimes known as johns or tricks in North America and punters in Britain and Ireland. In common parlance among prostitutes as well as with others, the act of negotiating and then engaging with a client is referred to as turning a trick. Female clients are sometimes called janes, although the vast majority of prostitution clients are male in almost all countries.