Maison Close - 'Season 1' Blu-rays, DVDs Announced...We've Got the Press Release!

 Chicago, IL (December 3, 2014) - This January, Music Box Films invites U.S. home audiences into the heart of an exclusive 19th century bordello with MAISON CLOSE: SEASON ONE. Sumptuous, stylized and finely crafted, this "racy new French thriller ," a dark exploration of desire and power, re-imagines age-old themes - and the world's oldest profession - in revolutionary ways. Lauded by the New York Times as an example of a new wave of French television that is "fresh and unexpected," SEASON ONE will be available as a 2-disc Blu-ray set ($39.95 srp) and 3-disc DVD set ($34.95 srp) on January 27, 2015.

MAISON CLOSE is the newest addition to Music Box's slate of cinema-quality foreign television acquisitions, which includes the distributor's last three International Emmy Award-Winners for Best TV Movie/Miniseries or Series - GENERATION WAR in 2014, THE RETURNED in 2013 and MILLENNIUM in 2011. Other critically acclaimed releases include Sweden's WALLANDER and Kiyoshi Kurosawa's mini-series PENANCE.

Set in Paris in 1871, right after the suppression of la Commune, a workers' revolutionary movement that briefly took power, MAISON CLOSE follows a cast of gorgeous women trapped by circumstances beyond their control in the luxury brothel 'Paradise'. Considered a first class "closed house" reserved for aristocratic or bourgeois clientele and noted for strange and refined practices during a time when prostitution was legalized, Paradise is populated by a fascinating cast of characters, each of whom struggles to find escape and solace in their own way. Hortense (Valérie Karsenti), is the manipulative and, in turn, manipulated mistress of the Paradise who runs her business with iron hand; Véra (Anne Charrier), the star of the bordello, is a beautiful courtesan in her thirties whose career is nearing its end; and, Rose (Jemima West, Mortal Bones: The City of Instruments), the heroine, is a country ingénue raised by nuns who goes to the Paradise searching for her mother, only to be blackmailed into becoming a prostitute.

Unfolding like a serialized 19th century French naturalist novel, this uncompromising series, produced by Jacques Ouaniche at Noe Productions International for Canal Plus+, is the perfect mix of style and substance, a richly compelling period drama with unmistakably modern sensibilities.

The Blu-ray and DVD sets of MAISON CLOSE: SEASON ONE include all eight unrated and uncut 55-minute episodes from the series' first acclaimed season. Also included is a collector's book featuring photos and essays.