With this as a background, people can naturally understand that even high-end girls can find a market. In the film "The Girlfriend Experience" recently shot by director Steven Soderbergh, the heroine Chelsea is a high-end girl who works in New York and costs $2,000 per hour. She has a beautiful body, a beautiful face, and waterfall-like brown hair, which is very cool. Besides, what service can she provide to customers who are willing to pay high prices? Sex alone is not enough. Chelsea wants to accompany the guests to chat. In the penthouses of Manhattan's high-rise buildings, while drinking wine in high-end restaurants, the topic is closely related to current affairs and politics. This story happened on the eve of the presidential election in November 2008, and the United States has fallen into a financial crisis. Chelsea guests are worried about the current economic situation. They are concerned about the government's rescue plan. One of them advised Chelsea not to buy diamonds, saying that it is wise to buy gold. Another complained to her that a construction contract he was negotiating had been snatched from Pei's office.
Chelsea’s clients include Wall Street bankers, playwrights, and businessmen. Her relationship with these people seems to be no different from that of men and women in love, except when she counts the money after closing the transaction. Lovers also drink wine, eat a five-course dinner by candlelight, talk about various elegant topics, and end up in bed with kisses, but generally speaking, they don’t settle immediately the next morning. In front of Soderbergh’s camera, Chelsea is an intellectual girl. She understands the difference between the identities of call girls and girlfriends: with call girls, customers have a lot of imagination, and they expect each other to become their own. The kind of person you want; with your girlfriend, customers will just say, I like what you are now.
The movie focused on all aspects of Chelsea's work and life in New York within a few days. Some details are not good for direct performance, so the director Soderbergh asked Chelsea to tell the audience through his diary. For example, there are scenes of Chelsea wearing underwear in the movie, but the audience can't see the brand. Fortunately, it is recorded in her diary. Not the "Victoria's Secret" that I have heard of, but the unheard of La Perla. I just Googled, and a pair of La Perla underwear can sell for $275.
Since watching his "Sex, Lies, Videotape" in China in the early 90s, Soderbergh has become one of my favorite directors. In the past 20 years, I have both envied and admired him. I admire his talent and admire him after winning Hollywood recognition, still drifting outside the mainstream, insisting on shooting low-cost, exploratory experimental works. Soderbergh's creation alternates between entertainment and art films. His entertainment films helped actor Julia Roberts and others get Oscars. He himself won the best director award with "Traffic", but Soderberg never gave up independent production.
The production budget of "Girlfriend on Call" is less than 2 million U.S. dollars, the filming cycle is only two weeks, and the gross box office revenue is less than 1 million. Soderbergh not only acted as the director, but he also personally operated the machine, completing the photography and editing alone. He chose high-definition television cameras instead of movie cameras to shoot to better reflect the guerrilla-like style of this movie. The film did not adopt a conventional narrative structure. Soderberg intertwined several story lines after disrupting the chronological order, resulting in visual dazzling. Although the film length is only 70 minutes, it took me twice as long to figure out what the various people in the movie are waiting for.
Soderbergh chose mostly non-professional actors, except for Sasha Grey, who played the protagonist Chelsea. Sasha Grey is 21 years old this year. She is currently the hottest female star in the American pornographic film industry. However, in this film, Soderbergh excluded all the scenes that were related to pornography. Sasha Grey has barely exposed his body, and the closest one only appeared in the shadows. Those who want to fully observe Sasha Grey's beautiful figure can go to any other work starring her.
With Soderbergh's pursuit, it is impossible for him to just be satisfied with the surface of the life of high-end candidates without exploring the inner world. A second- and third-rate director can satisfy the curiosity of incompetent audiences with prostitutes, but Soderbergh must have enough depth to make such movies. He obviously hopes to discuss similar questions: How can high-end recruits establish a brand so that customers can obtain value-for-money consumer satisfaction? Can they strictly distinguish between work and emotions? If they have feelings with customers due to transactions, how will they respond? Outside of work, can they find the kind of companionship that other professional women have? Have they encountered the challenge of lack of security? How do they plan their lives after old age?
Compared with literary works, it is particularly difficult to explore the inner world of characters in depth with film methods. Soderberg has figured out many ways, such as arranging a few interesting characters, through them to show Chelsea's psychological state from the side. There is an outlier among her customers: webmasters of pornographic websites. The webmaster has repeatedly persuaded Chelsea that public relations work is very important. He is willing to post positive comments on the Internet to increase popularity, as long as he can get Chelsea services for free. He told Chelsea that the high class could be even higher in the future, and the high class is endless, but this shameless guy slandered her afterwards. If you really understand what high-end is, why does Chelsea be fooled by the Internet?
Chelsea has a cohabiting boyfriend, Chris, who can tolerate the career of call girls, but there are limits. As long as he senses that Chelsea has a good impression of any customer, the flame of jealousy in Chris's heart is immediately ignited. It's embarrassing for him. In actual operation, how can he draw a clear dividing line? In fact, Chelsea's own distinction between work and emotion is not clear enough. Among the customers who can afford the high price of US$2,000 for one hour, there are naturally some extremely successful and attractive men. Can she really guarantee that the heartstrings will not be disturbed?
Chelsea is very confident in her body, and any conscious audience would probably not think she is in blind self-confidence. However, Chelsea still suffers from inferiority complex when meeting an old customer and a new female partner. That girl was just as pretty, curvaceous, and taller. In addition, Chelsea also has concerns about her own safety, and she cannot do without the comfort of astrology. As a precaution, she also refuses to serve customers who have never found a call girl.
Perhaps it is because the expectations of Soderbergh are too high. From the beginning of the movie, I never think he has really found the answers to those important questions about Chelsea. There is an experienced reporter in the film. During the interview, he tried his best to spy on Chelsea's inner world, trying to induce her to change her calm and composed posture, showing cunning in her dedication, but failed to succeed. Soderberg himself could not go further than the reporter.
Every time I watched the experimental works shot by Soderbergh according to my own wishes, I came with expectation and left with a little disappointment. Although he never reached the height of "Sex, Lies, Videotape" again, I never wanted to miss every new work of his. Just for him, he is always pursuing, even if it is not so successful, it doesn't matter.
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