Special Treatment

What's the difference between a psychoanalyst and a prostitute? They're both coolly detached professionals, ready to listen to desperate clients who rely on them to help them manage the vicissitudes of daily life. Isabelle Huppert is outstanding as Alice, an intelligent, high-class call girl who rents a luxury suite to provide her wealthy clients the special treatments they desire. Bouli Lanners is Xavier, a contemptuous and obsessive-compulsive psychoanalyst. When his wife kicks him out, he moves into the hotel where Alice plies her trade. Both Xavier and Alice are fine art cognoscenti who cynically collect clients as well as exquisite statuary. One day they meet in the drugstore, where he is stocking up on hand sanitizer, and soon Xavier awkwardly attempts to engage Alice's services. Very gradually, over the course of the ten sessions he's booked and paid for in advance, their mutual neediness becomes apparent. Beautifully acted, witty, and moving, SPECIAL TREATMENT is a reflection on the sadness behind the callousness of modern super-sophisticates. (In French with subtitles) –B.B.