Nick Broomfield Volume One Adventures in the Sex Trade

Chicken Ranch made in 1983 takes us inside a legalised brothel just outside Las Vegas (supposedly the inspiration for the stage show and movie The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas ).

Heidi Fleiss: Hollywood Madam made in 1995 follows the infamous Hollywood Madam Heidi Fleiss (hence the title), determined to get an interview Broomfield meets everyone but Fleiss from her friend Victoria (daughter of Peter) Sellers to her greedy mentor Madam Alex.

Fetishes from 1996 in a look into the highly seedy underworld of a New York S&M parlour called Pandora’s Box.

SO IS IT ANY GOOD?

Nick Broomfield was Michael Moore before Michael Moore was, Kaleidoscope are putting together some of his feature length doco’s in trilogy’s linked by theme, this first set contains three documentaries going inside the “business” of sex and business it sure is, from the seedy goings on at the Chicken Ranch brothel with its visitors arriving by private plane to the faux glamorous world of the Hollywood Hooker in Heidi Fleiss to the downright dark perversions of the customers of Pandora’s Box in Fetishes.

Like Moore ’s movies Broomfield is an almost ever present, an intrusive part of the action, in fact one of the mistresses in Fetishes is determined to instil a little discipline into Broomfield !

Certainly interesting, I’m not sure how much these 3 volumes add to our understanding of a normally underworld part of society – they definitely all leave a slightly unpleasant after taste, all three docos at their heart are about women being used by men. Best of the bunch is the Heidi Fleiss entry with its almost tongue in cheek attitude, Fetishes though just seems a little too dark and dare we say it – boring even.

With Broomfields star in the ascendant thanks to recent cinema outings like Aileen: The Life and Death of a Serial Killer (the inspiration for the movie Monster).

ANY SPECIAL FEATURES?

All feature an introduction by Broomfield , a pastiche of his film making career and photo galleries.