Maison Close is a dramatic series that commenced on Monday, October 4, 2010 on Canal+. The first season consists of 8 episodes. Production of the second season wrapped last month and those 8 new episodes will air in early 2013.
The DVD and Blu-ray box sets of season 1 will be released in the UK on September 3, 2012 but first, the show will air Sundays at 10 on Sky Arts starting July 15. SkyArts seems like a rather small channel not big on scripted series but the few it has aired are foreign, such as Israeli series BeTipul (the original In Treatment) and Hatufim (the original Homeland). It looks like Maison Close will join them this summer.
The DVDs and Blu-rays will have all 8 episodes in French with English subtitles. Maison Close joins Engrenages (Spiral) and Braquo in the small group of French-speaking Canal+ series having crossed over the Channel for broadcast and subsequent DVD/Blu-ray release.
Maison Close, literally "closed house", means "bawdy-house". The action takes place in 1871 in a brothel called Le Paradis, in Paris. It mostly follows the lives of Rose (looking for her mother, she got trapped in the whorehouse), Véra (star of Le Paradis on her way out) and Hortense (the ruthless "pimp" running the place).
This is a series from Mabrouk El Mechri, director of two great French films (Virgil and especially JCVD) and one not-so-great American film apparently (The Cold Light of Day).
Maison Close stars :
— Jemima West as Rose.
— Anne Charrier as Véra.
— Blandine Bellavoir as Angèle.
— Valérie Karsenti as Hortense.
— Déborah Grall as Bertha.
— Clémence Brétecher as Valentine.
If you want to enjoy the show on DVD, click here, and if you want it on Blu-ray, click here. The Blu-rays will actually be exclusive to the UK for two/three months since it wasn't released in that format back in November 2010 in France. With this release in September in the UK, there's a 99% chance Maison Close season 1 will get a Blu-ray box set a few weeks before the première of season 2 on Canal+, but for now no official announcement.
Furthermore, I read here that a US remake is also in development ! Thus Maison Close is joining Mafiosa, Braquo, Engrenages and Pigalle la nuit, other Canal+ series American producers are eyeing for a makeover (click on the Canal+ label to access the threads in which I talk about that). The American version of Maison Close would probably be set in Louisiana, maybe not but it would most definitely be set in the South.
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