Sleeping Beauty (2011)
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A university student takes a high-paying job involving voluntary sedation to fulfill the fantasies of wealthy clients.
The story
Lucy, a university student struggling with rent and tuition, takes a mysterious part-time job with a group that caters to wealthy individuals who desire the company of nude, sleeping young women. To fulfill these fantasies, Lucy must be absolutely submissive and voluntarily enter a state of physical unconsciousness. She is initially hired by Clara, who runs a service combining lingerie modeling and catering. While the initial roles involve serving at dinner parties, Lucy is eventually promoted to a position where she is voluntarily sedated and sleeps naked while male clients lie beside her, permitted only to caress and cuddle her.
Full plot (contains spoilers)
Lucy is a university student who works various jobs, including office work, restaurant service, and as a research subject, to pay her expenses. She cares for Birdmann, an alcoholic who is attracted to her. Due to financial pressure, Lucy responds to a classified ad and meets Clara, who runs a service where young women serve at black-tie dinners. After a few sessions, Lucy is promoted to a role where she is voluntarily sedated to sleep naked while male clients cuddle her. After accumulating enough money to move into a larger apartment, Lucy finds Birdmann dying in his bed; she spends his final moments with him. Following his funeral, she briefly asks an ex-boyfriend to marry her, but he refuses. At her next assignment, Lucy attempts to surreptitiously film her encounter while sedated. During this session, the client drinks a larger dose of the sleeping drug. The next morning, both Lucy and the client are found unconscious; Clara revives Lucy using mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. Lucy screams upon seeing the man in the bed next to her is dead. The film ends with a hidden camera shot of the dead man and the sleeping girl lying peacefully together.
- First release year
- 2011
- Runtime (minutes)
- 102
- Production countries
- Australia
- Original languages
- English
- Directors
- Julia Leigh
- Writers
- Julia Leigh · screenplay
- Cast and characters
- Emily Browning · Lucy; Rachael Blake; Ewen Leslie; Peter Carroll; Chris Haywood
- Genres
- erotic; psychological drama
- Themes
- voluntary oblivion; nihilism; sedation
- Tone and mood
- creepy; surreal; somber; deadpan; unsettling
- Premise and plot tags
- erotic drama; psychological drama; independent film; Australian cinema
- Source material / true-story basis
- The House of the Sleeping Beauties by Yasunari Kawabata, Memories of My Melancholy Whores by Gabriel García Márquez, and various fairytales and biblical stories.
- Content notes
- nude
- Reception
- The film received mixed to divisive reviews, with some critics praising its style and atmosphere while others found it elliptical and lacking character depth.
- Reported review scores
- Metacritic · score: 61 · scale: 100 · review count: 20
- Production trivia
- The script was on the 2008 Black List of unproduced screenplays.; Emily Browning studied Charlotte Gainsbourg's performance in Antichrist to prepare for the role.; The film was the first Australian film in competition at Cannes since Moulin Rouge! (2001).
Film metadata comes from the open sources listed in Credits & Contact. Catalogue details may be incomplete.
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