Laura is a student living with her boyfriend in an apartment. They barely make ends meet. One night she tries to get intimate with him but he refuses so she checks out online classifieds for men seeking women and ends up replying to a guy who wants only non-sexual physical contact. She meets him, he's an older gentler guy who wants to talk and caress her but she doesn't really let him. Still, he thinks she's amazing. He becomes a regular for her. Her second client is much more sexually aggressive yet she acts as if she's not there to have sex. By now she starts making money and can afford the luxuries she sees other college girls having. But she doesn't go crazy shopping or anything of the sort. Aside from finer clothes it doesn't look like she's living a better life. Her boyfriend is clueless about it all but when she comes clean he's supportive and offers his help. This girl is a terrible prostitute making it very clear to her clients that she's not interested in anything and she doesn't even act or pretend to enjoy her encounters. Not only that but she also has her customers pay her after the fact. And eventually it backfires when a guy pays only a fraction of the agreed fee. That drives her mad and puts a strain on her relationship.When she needs a laptop she again meets with her first regular. He wants to do more kinky stuff, but she refuses, runs away in disgust, still she takes the laptop, and he pays her on top off that. Now she's starting to have second thoughts about this career. But she agrees to meet the guy one last time. He takes her to some sex club. He knows all the guys there. He takes her to the dungeon there where two much older guys wait. Next we see her leaving in disgust. Presumably he made her have sex with the two? We don't know. This time he only pays her a part of her fees.When she decides to move to Paris the old guy calls her again with sob stories that he's got cancer and that he wants to see her one last time, and pay her thousands. In Paris, she gets a job as a waitress but she finds it all so difficult. Still she thrives. She returns to her hometown to take her exams. She studied languages and passes the exams.The movie begins and ends with Laura in a wig, doing some TV interview. The movie aims to alert the society how precarious the situation is for French college students and how many girls have to resort to prostitution. However, Student Services makes a very poor case for whatever point it's trying to make. I saw this movie years after seeing Young & Beautiful, another lackluster French movie about the exact same topic but that one was a bit more compelling. Student Service has little going for it in terms of characters, story, or titillation. Déborah François is cute in a normal girl sort of way but that's about it.

After picking up the terrible British Sex Comedy Not Tonight Darling I started looking round on Ebay for films that a friend would be keen in picking up.Catching my first glimpse of her recently in the exquisite Populaire,I was pleased to spot an "Erotic Drama" starring Déborah François,which led to me getting ready to find out what the "student services" are.The plot:Studying in university,Laura finds herself struggling to pay the student fees and cover all of her other bills.Looking for tips on how to pay the fees,Laura ends up stumbling on a prostitution website.Seeing the cash that men are willing to pay in order to meet women,Laura decides to dive in,and agrees to a meeting with Joe.Meeting Joe,Laura soon finds herself struggling with being happy with the cash,but deeply troubled by what she has to do in order to raise the fees.View on the film:Made as a TV movie,writer/director Emmanuelle Bercot and cinematographer Christophe Offenstein present the sex in a surprisingly bare manner,with Laura being shown fully naked,and her clients being left topless (although Bercot shy's away from going below the belt with the guys,despite being fine going there with the women!) Stylishly bringing Laura into the "adult business" world with quirky pop-up E-Mails and comedic " running meters" Bercot freezes the viewer in witnessing the pain that Laura suffers,as tough close-ups lock in on the anguish cast across Laura's face.Adapting an infamous bio by "Laura D",the screenplay by Bercot attempts to thread a tough Drama with flirty Sexploitation nods.Whilst Bercot strips off the fragile state Laura is in as her relationships start to crumble,Bercot sadly fails to make the comedic edges sparkle,due to Bercot keeping a distance from Laura's lighter side,and also giving Laura no one good to react to,as all the men are shallowly drawn as total,2D scum. Displaying bravely in the deeply uncomfortable sex scenes, Déborah François gives a superb performance as Laura,thanks to François delicately balancing Laura's weaknesses with burning desire to complete her student services.

Mes chères etudes – Student Services – CATCH IT (B-) Based upon Mes chères études (My expensive studies in English) is a 2008, an autobiographical book by an anonymous author known as "Laura D.", who is a modern language student at a Paris university. The book has drawn national attention in France with its controversial contents, in which the author claimed that she had to go into prostitution to financially support her studies. (Wiki) French movies are sexually expletive and they don't hesitate in holding back. This goes for this one as well. It's at times very disturbing a young girl doing things with old man, getting raped, message or just lying naked. Anyways Déborah François did a great job because it didn't occur to me for a second that she is just an actress. The thing about the movie I didn't like that it's slow and spend too much time in the bedroom at times.

Okay, you can compare Student Services (what a horrible, porno name in the first place) to Lolita or The Lover, but what makes this different than Looking For Mr. Goodbar I suspect is the fact that the woman who becomes the prostitute does not die or otherwise meet her downfall, but instead, regardless of the horrible things she is forced to go through, she achieves, passes her college exams and moves on in life. That is the most horrible aspect of this film, what I suspect is behind the negative reviews of it, that are not judging the quality of writing, acting or direction--all of which are superb--but instead that judge the morality of the story, which instead of handing us some Christian values, hands us a glimpse of a possible truth. She didn't fall for that final offer and good for her. Good movie. Check it out.