Thursday 29 November 2012

Belle de jour

A film by Luis Buñuel from 1967 with beautiful Catherine Deneuve. 
(The title refers to belle-de-jour, the French name of the daylily (Hemerocallis), meaning "beauty of the day", a flower that blooms only during the day). 





Catherine Deneuve plays Séverine, a bourgeois housewife unable to commit sexually to her husband Pierre (Jean Sorel). Instead she fulfils her sadomasochistic fantasies by becoming prostitute ‘Belle de jour’ at an intimately run brothel.

Catherine Deneuve’s costumes were designed by Yves Saint Laurent, shoes Roger Vivier ( how very surprising ). 

Belle de Jour would be a pro-feminist film were it not for the flashbacks indicating Séverine’s sexual abuse as a child. She does not enjoy her desires so much as exorcise them as a result of her childhood trauma.



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