Belle de Jour, Luis BuñuelSeverine (Catherine Deneuve) is a listless haute bourgeouise wife with a secret afternoon life of prostitution. Her life twists repression and guilt together with uninhibited behaviour, strangled libido with its liberated counterpart. Luis Bunuel was catapulted into cinematic history by his groundbreaking Dali collaboration, Un Chien Andalou, in 1929, but it is Belle de Jour (1967) which inaugurates the extraordinary late phase of his work. It is a film shimmering with reflections on truth, fiction and fantasy, in addition to caustic social insight, as it tells the story of a woman clearing her mind, perhaps, of its ghosts. |
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Belle de Jour BFI FILM CLASSICS Bois de Boulogne Bourgeoisie brothel Buñuel film Buñuel's late camera carriage Carrière Catherine Deneuve cats Chambermaid character cinema client close-up coachmen Deneuve's director Discreet Charm dress Duke Durgnat everything Exterminating Angel fantasy feel fiction film's fin de siècle frame François Maistre French films Freud Geneviève Page hear Henri Husson heroine Husson says idea imaginary interpretation Jean-Claude Carrière Joseph Kessel Kessel Kessel's novel landau late films look Los Olvidados Luis Buñuel Marcel mean memory Michel Piccoli Mme Anaïs movie narrative Nazarín Object of Desire Obscure Object Paris Phantom of Liberty Pierre says Pierre's reality Renée scene screen screenplay seems seen sense sequence serenity Séverine dreams Séverine says Séverine's daydreams Séverine's imagination shoes shot someone soundtrack Spanish story style suggest Surrealist tell thing thought Tristana Un Chien andalou Vierny Viridiana wait wheelchair woman Yves Saint-Laurent