Beyond Ghislaine Maxwell: Filthy Rich review – The Other Side of a Harrowing Story appeared first on Ready Steady Cut.
Ghislaine Maxwell: Filthy Rich begins with a content warning, and this review will do the same: The content of this documentary includes descriptions of sexual assault against minors that some may find deeply disturbing.
Jessalyn Maxwell for the sake of scandal.
Of all the sexual harassers in the world, or so new Netflix Documentary directed by Miken Bird And the Lisa Bryant She tells us that only 5% of them are women. No suggestion is made about what the perfect sexual predator might look like, but we understand it’s nothing like Ghislaine Maxwell, a pretty Oxford-educated English socialite decked out in designer paraphernalia and often seen hanging by the arm of her highly successful businessman father, Robert Maxwell. This was, apparently, the reason why she was able to draw girls, many of whom were minors, into her crossfire. Jeffrey Epstein No one suspected her of being an accomplice, much less a perpetrator herself.
In 2020, Netflix released a four-part docuseries titled Jeffrey Epstein: Dirty Richa shocking account of how money and status allowed a man to set up a sex trafficking ring on his doorstep. Jessalyn Maxwell: Filthy Rich Debunking the same scandal from a new angle, that of Epstein’s ex-girlfriend turned lover/PA/”best friend,” who opened the doors to high society and the royal family through which Epstein would eventually pass on a string of unsuspecting children, many of whom are in the feature. The new documentaries.
They are joined by former friends and associates of Ghislaine and various legal professionals. Their descriptions of Ghislaine are eerily consistent, painting a picture of a charming, intelligent woman of means and manners, an attentive hostess, but also someone with a pronounced sexual charisma that often crossed the line into sexual aggression and coercion. We get descriptions of dinner parties in which a game was made of blindfolded men trying to identify topless women by stroking their breasts. Plenty of massages are made, and in nearly every description of Epstein’s apparent abuse Ghislaine is either present or lurking nearby, asking his victims how they found the experience.
The documentary is clear in its assertion that what Ghislaine found in Epstein was a surrogate for her father after his death, another man of limitless means and influence who could continue to fund the lifestyle that had become her identity. No one seemed quite sure of the exact nature of their relationship, but everyone agreed that it wasn’t healthy. It soon became an open secret that Ghislaine was soliciting young women for the pleasure of the evil Epstein.
Like the docuseries that deconstruct Epstein himself, Jessalyn Maxwell: Filthy Rich A clinical approach, speaking mostly in the voices of those exploited and abused by Epstein and Maxwell, chronicles the breadth of Maxwell’s life from her affluent upbringing and Oxford education to her relationship with Epstein, her non-profit environmental work with TerraMar, and her eventual trial and trial on five counts of sex trafficking in US federal court. The 101-minute running time doesn’t allow for much depth, but it’s enough time and space to paint a clear and compelling portrait of a woman who was as guilty of Epstein’s crimes as Epstein himself.
Beyond Ghislaine Maxwell: Filthy Rich review – The Other Side of a Harrowing Story appeared first on Ready Steady Cut.
