Originally released in 1967, Luis Bunuel's sly black comedy of eros is finally being seen
again after almost twenty years out of circulation. Catherine Deneuve gives an
extraordinarily subtle and nuanced performance as Severine, a bourgeois Parisian housewife
who spends her afternoons as a working girl in a discreet brothel. Because she'll only
agree to stay from two until five in the afternoon, she's named Belle de Jour by the
bordello's madame (Genevieve Page). The plot f-b f+i-f-b f-i will Severine's husband (Jean
Sorel), a handsome, sensitive doctor, discover Belle de Jour? will her favorite client, a
Carnaby-Street-style gangster (Pierre Clementi) discover Severine? - is secondary to
Bunuel's masterful manipulations. His film is ironically detached, yet it gets hauntingly
under your skin with its daring mix of fantasy, repression, desire and all manner of
puckish perversities. A quarter of a century after it was made and a decade after
Bunuel's death, "Belle de Jour" continues to baffle and beguile. And seduce.
Copyright 1994-2008 Film Scouts LLC
Created, produced, and published by Film Scouts LLC
Film Scouts® is a registered trademark of Film Scouts LLC
All rights reserved.
