7/10
For a Luis Bunuel movie that I didn't know a whole lot about going in, I was surprised at how straightforward it was. Catherine Deneuve plays a high society woman who on the surface seems to have it all, except she can't bring herself to be physically intimate with her husband - but she repeatedly fantasizes about being sexually used, abused, debased...to the point of working for a "classy" whorehouse in the afternoon while her husband is at work (hence being given the alias Belle de Jour). Once she is able to live out her fantasies, ironically, she is drawn closer to her husband, but of course, tragedy is a step away. This is adapted from a novel which may explain why it isn't quite as off the rails as the Bunuel I've seen, but it does deal with themes that seem to be up his alley. Deneuve is fine but I thought Pierre Clementi stole the show as the jealous gangster who falls for Belle de Jour. I can only imagine how the rape/S&M/abuse fantasies (from an upper-class woman, no less) went overi n 1967.
No comments:
Post a Comment