ShangLuda Admirable film.

Intcatinfo A Masterpiece!

Matrixiole Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.

Catangro After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

Barbouzes Belle De Jour is simply amazing in its content and its form, and amazingly, it has also aged very well: the tale of Severine is told in such subtle layers that it is watchable by anyone, it has not lost its bite after all these years, and anyone can still make what they want of it. That's a masterpiece! I will make one remark, though, about the DVD version I am viewing in 2017 via rental: it is a Miramax edition curated by Martin Scorsese, so you would think this latest DVD incarnation is improved in all ways from the original 1967. But I regret to say the translation (i.e. the subtitles) from French to English is often inaccurate, if not downright misleading. Pardon my hauteur, but I am French-born and 100% bilingual, darnit. I wonder if that sloppy translation was actually deliberately "softened"(i.e as a form of censorship), because it often results in a "softening" of the situation seen on screen . One example: the necrophiliac character addresses his "dear departed" in the coffin as "ma fille"in French. It is translated as "my girl" in the DVD version. Yes, "ma fille" in French can be "my girl", but it is also far more frequently "my daughter". And here, it is far more likely "my daughter", considering Bunuel's social comment and intent in this film. If you view the scene I am referring to, you will know that whether this man calls this dead woman "my girl" or " my daughter" makes a great deal of difference in the meaning of the scene.

CallEmLike ICem Catherine Deneuve has a handsome doctor husband who loves her and likes whisking her away to nice spots for romantic getaways. He wants children with her. She responds with frigidness and, usually, turn-downs to his physical overtures.Then she decides the thing to do is start working as a prostitute at a whorehouse. While he's away working to make the money to support her idle luxury, she flops down on a mattress to sell to a series of fat, sweaty strangers the sexual favors she usually won't share with hubby at home.For his sake, it's unfortunate she neglects to mention this. He also could stand to know the name of a good lawyer. With a friend like her, he won't need many enemies.We see she was molested as a child by some elderly pervert. As an adult she fantasizes about being tied up, whipped, raped, and having animal dung flung into her face until half her person is covered in it. And you wondered why they never show this at women's self-esteem conferences.We do tend to guess she has issues, a side of her sexuality she hasn't come to grips with. Her prostituting herself, we speculate, is some exploration of it.Director Luis Bunuel seems mostly interested in manipulating the characters like marionettes to reach his pre-planned political agenda, showing them as empty-headed bourgeoisie marching to certain doom.Doom comes, not to her but to him. He pays a vicious price for her duplicitous back-stabbing. Unable to face what she's wrought, she descends into a world of fantasy, dreaming of him as he was, conveniently forgetting how much it bored her.While I did care about the characters and was drawn in by the tragedy, it also seemed an all-too-easy excuse to make it all about some dark sexual matter. For all her exploring, Denevue doesn't seem to gain much insight. I didn't either, except that movies like this tend to draw attention.Bunuel seems to hold his characters and society in contempt, while also not suggesting any better alternatives. Sexuality is almost always depicted as something either perverse or for sale in half-hour increments. The one character who seems to feel it's healthy - Sorel - winds up an invalid in a wheelchair. This anti-human strain was off-putting.Bunuel's hatred of the middle class seems endless, and is uninterrupted by the fact that he is one himself. He even appears in a cameo, drinking coffee in a cafe. Better he'd been the waiter, so audiences could have sent this all back to the kitchen and ordered up a little less misanthropy, a little more care about the characters.

Armand a special film. like each movie by Bunuel. same scene, same tricks, same spirit. different ingredients. and Catherine Deneuve in one of her memorable roles. a film about passion and desire. about search of happiness and clash between words. ironic, cold and out of reality's circle. and it is enough for discover an universe who has its rhythm, shadows and law. a film like a parable but that is not new fact for Bunuel. a film who seduce in strange manner because it is only a chain of questions. surrealism is basic answer but not the only. because it is an imitation of life in essential aspects. and a challenge. like each of Bunuel films.

Danny Blankenship Finally viewed the international classic "Belle De Jour" with legendary screen queen Catherine Deneuve and for a film of 1967 it was one of lust and erotic fantasy to it's best! The story has Deneuve as a bored young socialite rich housewife named Severine who has it all, but the problem is she can't get no sexual satisfaction with her husband a doctor. Her only escape is to daydream of odd and rough sex of being tied up and playing rough. So finally she decides to take up a job as a prostitute in a brothel house! And this new secret life has it's good fun moments, but it has it's negatives and real down parts. As love is found thru tragic means still the life of fantasy and erotic lust is not what it seems for Severine. Overall good erotic fantasy film that showcases how sexy daydreams can lead to love while paying a price.