Ileana Pietrobruno's Girlfriend Experience

IN PERSON: ILEANA PIETROBRUNO ► Pacific Cinémathèque is pleased to welcome the noted Vancouver independent filmmaker Ileana Pietrobruno. Pietrobruno — whose highly distinctive films include the trippy Cat Swallows Parakeet and Speaks! (1996)  and the lesbian pirate romp Girl King (2002) —will present her new feature, a stylish drama exploring the “hidden world of the john." Its protagonist is Daniel (David Lewis), a young man dumped by girlfriend Maddy (Tara Frederick) because he won’t give up his favourite hobby: frequenting prostitutes. Increasingly obsessed with Adrian (Ivy Vine, Emma Lahana), a call girl specializing in "the girlfriend experience," Daniel becomes perilously unable to separate the fantasy and reality of their "relationship." Most films about prostitution, Pietrobruno has noted, focus on the plight of sex-trade workers, "but no one ever looks at the other significant part of the equation, which are the johns...I don’t quite know why but now that I’ve made this film, I like men a lot more." The film’s gorgeous cinematography is by Pietrobruno regular John Houtman. The film shares a title (save for the definite article) with Steven Soderbergh’s recent The Girlfriend Experience. At Pietrobruno’s (excellent) suggestion, we’re screening Soderbergh’s GFE as a double-bill companion to her own GFE. Colour, Blu-ray Disc. 83 mins.

Plays in a double-bill with Steven Soderbergh's The Girlfriend Experience.