Belle De Jour (40th Anniversary Edition) (DVD)

.../> I would say that Belle De Jour is one of Buñuel's most accessible films. His other films being less linear and more experimental. It is a long way from his avant-garde classics - Un Chien Andalou and L'Age d'Or. Although at times the film evokes a dreamlike quality, Belle de Jour is set very much in the real world. The film is full of elegance and this is perhaps most expressed in the careful attention that has been given to the costumes, settings, ...
...symbolism behind the movie. Although Belle De Jour is erotically charged and deals with some disturbing subject matter that some might still find shocking, there is no explicit sex in the film. It is a film that appeals to our love of mystery and how the mind is drawn to interpret art in a specific way. In Belle de Jour, Buñuel challenges this desire by maintaining a sense of ambiguity to the very end of the film. The film typifies Buñuel's obsession ... more

"Belle de Jour" was Buñuel's first film in colour and claimed the Golden Lion at the 1967 Venice Film Festival. It also won the award for Best Foreign Film in 1968 from the New York Film Critics Circle. It was based loosely on a novel by Joseph Kessel and like all of Buñuel's films it's subject matter borders on the surreal and draws upon prevalent ideas of Freudian theory and the idea that our everyday reality is constantly being undermined by subconscious hidden urges. What concerned Buñuel in many of his films was the way in which our underlying emotional forces and acts of sublimation override conscious acts of free will. This was the movie that inspired the website and the book of the same name that in turn inspired the TV series 'Secret Diary Of A Call Girl '.

The film portrays the double existence of Severine (Catherine Deneuve), a young middle class housewife recently married to a handsome young surgeon called Pierre (Jean Sorel). Their relationship however, is a hum drum affair where all is routine and devoid of excitement. Severine begins to get tired of her conventional marriage in which she sleeps apart from her husband and she soon gets bored with their mundane day to day existence. In order to spice up her life she takes up an afternoon job at a high class brothel after being handed the address by Henri, a secret admirer and friend of the family. At the brothel Madame Anais (Genevieve Page) is happy to give her a trial. Severine's initial reluctance and trepidation is soon overcome when Madame Anais realises that what she really needs is "a firm hand". It is not long before the subconscious masochistic side of her nature takes over and she soon comes to be intrigued by the strange fantasy requirements of the clientele and the tasks she is asked to carry out.

Catherine Deneuve gives an elegant and impassive performance throughout and is perfectly cast as "Belle de Jour" - a lady of the day rather than a lady of the night - a kind of symbolic play on words. She convincingly portrays Severine's double life where on the surface she is the modern affluent bourgeois housewife, but underneath she harbours a closet full of depraved and self-degrading sado-masochistic sexual fantasies. It is this rich fantasy world that comes to dominate her life. This masochistic imagination is realised in the opening scenes where we observe Severine and Pierre take a horse-drawn coach ride into the country. Suddenly the carriage pulls up and on her husband's command the two drivers drag Severine from the carriage. They are then ordered to whip and rape her. In another disturbing scene we witness Severine draped in a graceful white gown and tied to a tree as Pierre and his morose accomplice (Michel Piccoli) throw clumps of black mud at his wife. Throughout the film these sado-eroto-masochistic fantasies seem to be triggered by the sounds of bells tinkling or cats mewing.

I would say that Belle De Jour is one of Buñuel's most accessible films. His other films being less linear and more experimental. It is a long way from his avant-garde classics - Un Chien Andalou and L'Age d'Or. Although at times the film evokes a dreamlike quality, Belle de Jour is set very much in the real world. The film is full of elegance and this is perhaps most expressed in the careful attention that has been given to the costumes, settings, décor, hair, clothes. However, the film is far from straight forward and from start to finish the viewer is continually challenged by the emotional intricacies of the leading character and the hidden meanings that dominate her life. There is one famous scene in the brothel where a large Chinese client approaches clasping a small enamel box. One women refuses his offer, but Severine accepts. Inside there is something buzzing but we never see what it is nor what occurs between the client and Severine. There are plenty of surreal like moments in this film and the separation between the world of fantasy - Severine's fertile imagination and her mundane reality - is never wholly apparent.

The DVD was produced almost 40 years after its original cinema release in 1967. The DVD extras include an interesting 30 minute documentary about the history and making of the film and there is also an intriguing commentary by Spanish cinema expert Professor Peter William Evans who gives some insight into the meanings and symbolism behind the movie. Although Belle De Jour is erotically charged and deals with some disturbing subject matter that some might still find shocking, there is no explicit sex in the film. It is a film that appeals to our love of mystery and how the mind is drawn to interpret art in a specific way. In Belle de Jour, Buñuel challenges this desire by maintaining a sense of ambiguity to the very end of the film. The film typifies Buñuel's obsession with moral and social dilemmas, and the hypocrisy of the middle classes. Belle De Jour is one of the great erotic films of the 20th century. 

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