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Faithfull Drawing Raves For 'Irina Palm' Role |
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Tuesday, 13 February 2007 |
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 Singer and actress Marianne Faithfull plays a grandmother in dire
straights who becomes a sex worker in London's seedy Soho, in a
touching yet hilarious movie that has lit up a hitherto subdued Berlin
film festival.
"Irina Palm" follows Maggie, played by Faithfull, from
the side of her sick grandson's hospital bed to a sex shop where,
desperate to pay for the boy's medical treatment abroad, she accepts a
job where her smooth-skinned hands are a key asset.
Taught by a younger woman, she learns to service clients who stand on
the other side of a wall with a hole in it where they can be heard but
not seen. So legendary is her technique that queues of customers begin
to form and a rival club seeks to poach her.
Much of the comedy derives from the horror etched on
Faithfull's face as she goes to work, and the reaction of her
straight-laced circle of friends when they discover what Maggie has
been up to during the day. But it is also a moving film about how far
people go for their loved ones, and where, if anywhere, we should stop,
to do the right thing.
"You would do anything for your child or grandchild
and we do and it's not always easy," the 60-year-old told a news
conference, where she was loudly cheered. A packed audience also
applauded warmly after a press screening today (Feb. 13).
"It's the sex trade. It's not fun for women," she added. "I've had
friends who have worked in the sex trade, really good friends, and
they're now dead. Our film doesn't glamourize it. We try to make it as
real as it possibly could be."
Faithfull says she hasn’t “got any plans for a film at
the moment” in the wake of “Irina Palm.” “I've got big plans for my
next tour, which starts in Budapest. I do get offered a lot of rubbish
[film work], and I turn it down."
But she has always had a love of acting. "If I hadn't
got discovered [as a singer] at 17, I would have gone to drama school
and studied acting,” she said. “If something comes that is really
wonderful with people I would really love to work with, of course I'd
take it."
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