Here is a movie that involves sex workers, same sex love, and lots of nudity without making a big deal about any of those things. That’s because it’s a European movie where, generally speaking, people are much more comfortable with the things that would send so many of us Americans into self-righteous convulsions.
But I Digress
“Bliss” is actually quite a simple story. Sascha (Katharina Behrens) is a veteran sex worker who once had a family and still has a son whom she visits. A new girl, Maria (Adam Hoya), shows up to work in the same brothel (reportedly the film was shot in an existing and legal brothel in Berlin) and quickly gets along with the other ladies who, by the way, are loving and kind with one another.
Although we see some pretty graphic sex (stopping well short of p*rn) we also see that it’s just them doing their job. They could be doing oil changes at Jiffy Lube.
The workaday goings on, though mundane, are interesting to see – I mean, stuff like the head Madam showing them which drinking glasses are for guests and which are for them. And over here is the Coke and Fanta. Washing machines in the background constantly go round, keeping clothes and linens clean.
But the “story arc”, which, as I say is simple – is that Sascha and Maria fall in love, go through, yes, moments of bliss, have their predictable downturn, and then…well, will they reconcile and live happily ever after? German director Henrika Kull gives us an idea without giving us too much. And that kinda goes for the whole film.
It’s a romance, an art-house flick, and an easy 90 minutes, and a visit to a mini-universe that most of us never knew anything about.
“Bliss” (German title is Glück) is mostly in English, with some German with subtitles. Opened in theaters August 5th and comes to On-Demand August 16th. https://darkstarpics.com/