Rosa la Rose, Public Girl

On the streets of Paris, Rosa ‘la rose’ is the belle of Les Halles. With no shortage of clients, she is beloved by her fellow working girls and spoiled by her pimp Gilbert. Yet her life will change forever on her twentieth birthday, when she locks eyes with Julien, a blue-collar worker who sees beyond her fun-loving façade. Paul Vecchiali’s astonishing melodrama, whose fluent, balletic mise-en-scène evokes Ophüls and Mizoguchi, explores class consciousness and female sexuality with startling empathy and precision.