Princesses [2005] [DVD]

This is a story of two women who are working on the street as wholes. So is it an erotic movie? Hell no. I don't review for erotic movies.The movie bearly show nudity and that is not these two women but other women on the street naked to seduce people in the car.The story is surprisingly amusing to watch. The director knew how to make the audience make these two charactor really lovable.There is no way not to.One woman has a family, a decent one, mother, father, sister and a brother. She just happenes to begin this business by an accident and she keep saying that it is temporary thing.The other woman has a child back in her country and need money to send to her mother for her child. She is really beautiful and in a great shape. I don't know why she is doing this job. She could have worked as a model or something. She has trouble having a work permit and constantly has to have sex with this guy, I think he is a lawyer, who do the paperwork for her illegally. Sometimes he even bit her brutally. He is a jerk.One day when this beautiful woman had a test and found out that she has AIDS, first thing she did was to meet that lawyer guy and had sex again. That was the revange. She wanted him to have AIDS too.Then she finally goes back to her home country.The main charactor on the other hand happens to meets this nice man and they become good mates. From time to time there were dagerous moments. Some guys saw her and found out that she is a street girl and approach her even though she was with her boyfriend.She had to go with the guy to have a blowjob to avoid from loosing her boyfriend.It was not easy for her to continue her job and continue her relationship with that nice man. But that man was so good to her.When her friend happens to leave the country, she tells her whole family about what she've done so far. Her family were of course very surprised.I think she will finally quie and find a new life.Some say everyone needs a second chance and I think these two women need one too.This movie was very convincing to make these two women to be lovable.The woman who has decent family even gave all the money to the woman who got AIDS when she goes back to her. That was a beautiful moment for me. Before, she constantly told her that that money was for her breast magnification. She always envied her friend's big breasts.Candela Peña was the actress who acted as who got the decent family and Micaela Nevárez was the beautiful actress who acted as the one who got AIDS. They both are quie aged. Theya are both born in 1972. But they truely looked way younger even though the movie was made back in 2005.

There is superb acting from all the cast in Princesses and especially so from the two leading actresses in the film – Candela Peña and Micaela Nevárez. The directing is good, as is the plot, the music, the editing and indeed all about this film with the possible exception of the hand-held camera work.The plot is plausible and intelligent. There is no gratuitous use of sex or violence in the film but sex and sometimes violence is portrayed and the film puts across the life of the prostitutes in Princesses very convincingly.This really is a very good film, and if like me you dislike deliberately shaken cameras, you might think twice about watching it, but actually I would recommend this film anyway as everything else about the film is very good.Princesses was nominated for numerous awards and won awards for Best Actress (Candela Peña) and Best New Actress (Micaela Nevárez) Best Original Song (Manu Chao) at the Goya’s. It won awards from The Spanish Actors Union and was nominated for awards at other film festivals including The Sundance Film Festival.On the DVD you get:Princesses (1 hour 49 minutes)Scene SelectionTrailer (2 minutes)

This is a compassionate portrayal of a short period of time in the lives of two prostitutes in Spain. But it tends to ignore or does not really explore the reasons behind these two girls adopting prostitution. Surely there is a greater complexity of factors which has led them to this life style. Many young women unfortunately experience economic hardship and/or social dysfunctiionality but most do not drift into prostitution. The film also does not question the longer term problems for these girls as their "looks" change with age. Rather it presents a fairly humanistic view of them as both individuals and friends, highlighting their vulnerability and almost childish behaviour (at odds with their street wiseness) plus their pensive moments. The films greatest strength lies in its critique of racism and the truth of the old adage that "there are more things to unite us than divide us", whatever your circumstances. Finely acted and smoothly directed, well worth a viewing.

This 2005 Spanish drama [with English subtitles] [aka: Princesas] Caye is a prostitute working in Madrid who is hiding her job from her family, and befriends one of the immigrant girls who have moved onto her square, Zulema, who sends money to her family in the Dominican Republic and needs her work permit. But can their friendship survive their profession?This plays like a fly on the wall docu-rama as we see the two women learn about each others backgrounds, cultures, beliefs, desires, longings and predicaments, but despite the bleak portrayal of earning a living on the streets, this does have wry humour running through it, plenty of ‘urban’ philosophy and given the topic has surprisingly little sex, which ends up being its main strength.The single disc offers no extras, just the basic play, scene selection and trailer, and although an 18 rating, it’s not the erotic movie the cover would suggest despite some full frontal nudity, but instead is a moving tale of friendship and discovery set against a harrowing backdrop that rings truer than most in this genre. If it’s eroticism you want, look elsewhere as most is implied, as is the violence, but if it’s a dark and sad drama, this may just do it.

An excellent look into the everyday life of prostitutes at the lower end of the scale. The lead actress is excellent and so believable and you follow her journey with relish. The supporting cast are equally excellent with not one performance lacking, which is some feat. I can't recommend this enough because the director has used a clever technique to travel with the characters imitating an almost documentary style. As ever with foreign movies, the characterisation is always critical as well as the story, and this should be held high up as a testimony of that.