House of Tolerance
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Luscious 35mm photography, well past its twilight hours, seduces us just for the sake of breaking our hearts in the present-day coda, cutting to a harsh digital image that induces a mental whiplash – spelling out how perhaps not all changes have to evolve so slowly. Torn between 1900 and ‘now’, the film’s soundtrack meets us at the mid-point with a mix of 60’s soul (The Mighty Hannibal, Lee Moses), which penetrates its way into the diegetic space of both temporal contexts. It’s enough to make one believe that Bonello’s casting of living, 21st-century actresses in the lead roles was a deliberate decision.
