When I first saw Marianne Faithful in Irena Palm, she was so much the frumpy housewife that I almost didn't recognize her. As the movie continued, however, I saw her bright eyes and intense expressions and realized that she's one of the few women who, like the far less likable Leni Riesenstahl, will be sexy in old age. She's had an odd career, going from ingénue groupie to seen-it-all chanteuse, seemingly without a middle period. In this film, she emerges as a greater actor than singer (though her Pirate Jenny from the Threepenny Opera may be the best version of the song in English). Her talent's in full bloom in Irena Palm. She appears in almost every frame and holds together a story that, on its own, is not always plausible.<br /><br />Maggie, the frumpy housewife, has a beloved grandson who's dying of some disease. He can go to Australia for experimental treatment but no one in the family can afford the 6,000 pounds needed for travel expenses. Maggie, without marketable experience, roams the streets of London in search of work to raise the money, without success until she applies for a hostess job at a grubby Soho sex show. Miki (Miki Manojlovic), the show's manager, likes the look of Maggie's hands and is willing to try her out. Seems the work involves masturbating anonymous men who, having been excited by nude showgirls, feed coins to a meter and stick their cocks through holes in a wall. Maggie does a fine job, develops a following, and proves an accomplished earner.<br /><br />But, of course, things get more complicated, and not only because Maggie develops "penis elbow" and must wear her arm in a sling. Her women friends wonder how she's spending her time and she refuses to tell them. When she gets the necessary money and gives it to her son, he follows her to her workplace and is outraged to discover that his mother's a whore. His wife understands better, however, and insists on accepting the money for the trip to Australia with their son. The film ends with Maggie returning to Miki's sex club and kissing her pimp/manager on the lips in what is clearly a developing romance.<br /><br />Ms Faithful has displayed, throughout her career, a visceral hatred of capitalism (her version of Working Class Hero is clearer and more intense than John Lennon's). Irena Palm can be seen as a sophisticated exploration of capitalist contradictions. Maggie is both satisfied by her financial success and happy that she can do something well, but the sordidness of her occupation is not minimized. Miki's sex club is realistically crowded and dirty. When her co-worker, Luisa (Dorka Gryllus), is unable to line up the men like Maggie, she is unceremoniously fired. Beneath its somewhat silly plot, Irena Palm makes serious statements, and Marianne Faithful enables it to happen.