SYNOPSIS

Séverine (Catherine Deneuve) is the beautiful young wife of Pierre (Jean Sorel), a successful Parisian doctor. While she loves Pierre, even after a year of marriage, Séverine is still unable to be comfortable in a sexual relationship with him. Unbeknownst to her adoring, patient husband, beneath Séverine's reserved patrician beauty lies a vivid fantasy life involving violent masochistic scenarios of surrender in which she is dominated, punished and humiliated. To explore these fantasies, Séverine begins clandestinely working during the day as a prostitute in a high-end brothel while Pierre is at work. As her alter ego nicknamed "Belle de Jour", Séverine is finally able to achieve sexual satisfaction. Her proclivities to explore her innermost desires, however, lead her down an increasingly dark path. When a seedy client (Pierre Clementi) becomes increasingly possessive of her, events take a tragic turn. But in the surreal dreamlike world of Belle de Jour, how much is real, and how much is fantasy?

CAST AND CREW

Director: Luis Buñuel

Producers: Robert Hakim, Raymond Hakim

Writers: Luis Buñuel, Jean-Claude Carrière

Based on the 1928 novel Belle de jour by Joseph Kessel

Cinematographer: Sacha Vierny

Art Director: Robert Clavel

Set Decorator: Maurice Barnathan

Editor: Louisette Hautecoeur, Walter Spohr

Costumes (for Catherine Deneuve): Yves Saint Laurent

Cast: Catherine Deneuve (Séverine), Jean Sorel (Pierre), Geneviève Page (Madame Anais), Michel Piccoli (Henri Husson), Pierre Clementi (Marcel), Macha Méril (Renée), Francisco Rabal (Hyppolite), Georges Marchal (The Duke), Françoise Fabian (Charlotte), Maria Latour (Mathilde), Francis Blanche (Monsieur Adolphe), Iska Khan (Asian client)

C - 100 min.

Why BELLE DE JOUR is Essential

 Belle de Jour is considered by many to be Buñuel's masterpiece, and it was his biggest and most enduring commercial success.

Catherine Deneuve's performance as the title character is one of her finest contributions to her distinguished film career as one of France's most luminous stars. It is one of the roles most associated with her.

Even with no explicit sex scenes and very little nudity, the film is widely considered to be one of the most erotic films in cinema history.

Buñuel's first color film, Belle de Jour is a sumptuous beautifully shot visual exercise that arouses the senses on every level, adding to the film's appeal.

Belle de Jour has endured over the years as new generations continue to discover it and debate its ambiguous meaning.

by Andrea Passafiume