Come in!
- Good morning, miss. - Good morning.
Yes, leave it here.
Wait.
Here are my knives!
My knives, my teaspoons. Great, here are all my things.
They call her Lolo Pigalle.
Of course, it is not her real name.
- Hello? - It's the garage.
Thank you.
Please, madam.
It's about my car, a Simca 1000.
When will it be ready?
- What's your name? - Miss Perrot.
The car will be ready at 2:30pm. - 2:30pm only?
- Are the bills ready? - They will be by then.
Very well, so I can come to the garage from 2:30 on.
All right, thank you.
Goodbye.
She grew up in an orphanage.
She never attended school.
Her mother was abandoned with 5 kids.
She says: "I raised the lot of them.
"I could even say "that I raised my mother too,
"because everything she ever had,
"I gave to her.
"There was a time when, for my mother,
"I earned up to 30,000 Fr a day.
"I performed in 2 or 3 clubs in an hour.
"Sometimes my knees "would bleed from it all.
"My mother died last year."
- Miss Lolo! - Yes?
Mr Leclerc called for you.
- What did he say? - He wanted you to visit him.
- When? - In the afternoon, anytime.
Thank you.
"Now I only work at night.
"The boss pays me 7,000 Fr a day.
"It's enough for me.
"I get the days off.
"When you live in poverty", she adds,
"you know nothing else."
We aren't here to judge.
It's neither our role, nor our purpose.
Especially for Lolo Pigalle.
Is stripteasing a real job?
Yes, it's a real job,
because if it's well done,
it's artistic after all.
You have to know how to walk,
and dancing basics.
You need to know,
probably not how to act,
but how to use your face,
and to capitalize on your strengths.
Actually, you don't really need...
You don't have to be very pretty.
As we say in this business, you need to know how to sell your salad.
Yes.
But it is a real job.
- It isn't only a matter of beauty. - No.
Contrary to the naked model
who must have a great physique, it isn't required for a stripper.
A movement...
It's mainly about movement.
It could be...
- The face is important too. - Yes.
A special face is more important than a gorgeous body.
Do you like your job?
No.
I don't like it.
Is it hard to have a job you don't like? This kind of job?
- Yes, it's hard. - In what way?
To be a good stripper, you need an exhibitionist streak,
and I don't have it in me.
I dislike that aspect the most.
I can get undressed 10 times a day.
It won't trouble me 10 times a day,
but at least once a day,
I realize what I'm doing and it bothers me.
The rest is just routine.
What are people looking for in a striptease?
Not a woman getting undressed.
No, I think it's the illusion.
Of what?
The illusion...
If a woman gets undressed,
they make her fit their imagination.
The woman is always alone...
In regular striptease, yes.
So in short, she's available?
Yes, in their minds.
- Is that how it is? - Yes.
Are there ever couples on the striptease stage?
Yes, there are, but not in real, regular striptease.
- The woman is alone? - Alone.
- And she's up for grabs. - Exactly.
It's terrifying to think
that this woman on stage
is taken by tons of people, and she doesn't even know by whom.
- You can feel it. - Yes.
Yes, because you notice it.
When you look the spectator in the eye,
you can really read lots of things.
Who are you on stage?
You know, it's a bit like being an employee.
They come into the office, leaving everything at home,
all of their worries.
You put a personality together.
And when you leave when the cabaret closes
or when I leave,
I take my uniform off and try to become myself again.
- Nudity is a uniform. - Yes.
It's a uniform.
The person you are
on stage,
do you know her well?
Yes.
Yes, maybe,
maybe better than the one off stage,
because I live more with the one on stage,
since I spend much more time there
than off stage,
because I don't spend much time off stage, and I need to sleep.
It counts a lot...
Yes, I don't sleep much. I think it's a waste of time.
Between you on and off stage, there's sleep.
Yes. There's not much time left.
And that's terrifying.
When you sleep, you don't own yourself anymore either.
You own yourself for only a very short time each day.
- You're single. - Yes.
- You don't want to get married. - No.
- Nor have children. - No.
- You don't want an apartment. - No.
There are other things in life that bring you comfort.
- Like friendship. - Yes.
It's the most important thing to me.
Is there a...
How shall I put it?
Is there such thing
as stripper's despair?
Yes.
Do strippers commit suicide?
Yes. But maybe they aren't...
That despair isn't caused by the job.
Despair, because the job is like a circle.
If you cannot leave the circle at some point,
if you aren't brave enough to escape from it,
you live your love life within that circle.
Then with unbalance comes despair, hence suicides.
It happens, unfortunately.
Yes.
You don't meet only good people in this job.
You meet a lot,
more ugly people than elsewhere.
- Especially... - What do you mean by ugly?
They're ugly because...
It's very hard to define.
Some people have nothing, neither brains, nor guts.
This neighbourhood, for a woman...
A woman in this neighbourhood, in this job,
is more often a prey for men.
Have you been in contact with the bourgeoisie?
Yes. Yes, because...
Do you think they have brains?
No, but they can hide it well.
Do you see a big difference between an actress and a stripper?
It depends.
For example, Jeanne Moreau can be much more sensual,
bolder than a striptease.
It's all in her motive and in her face.
What are you reading at the moment?
I've been keeping up-to-date
on trade unions and labour issues.
Mainly to stay informed.
And I'm re-reading The Lion by Joseph Kessel,
because it's so,
beautiful and close to nature.
So, you look out for your friends.
Yes.
Of course, a trade union would be impossible.
How do you go about it? Do you ever get together?
No.
We can't have a trade union.
It's more like a mafia.
When there's a job offer,
I look for friends who might be a good fit for it.
I discuss the prices, I ask them to not give in,
which is very hard.
If they don't give in,
the others are forced to agree, if there's a real need.
- There are a lot of strippers. - Yes.
Do they come from other regions or from Paris?
From everywhere: the regions, Paris, every corporation.
- From the bourgeoisie too? - Indeed.
Is it a vocation?
No, that would be a lie. I don't think so.
Even if it was a calling,
it wouldn't be profitable enough
for a true vocation.
You consider this job to be a real one,
with an artistic component to it,
and yet you're planning on retiring.
That's because I'd like to try and do something else.
And you have to leave this job before it leaves you.