Belle de jour

France/Italy 1967

Dir: Luis Buñuel

100 mins Subtitled

Cast:  Catherine Deneuve, Jean Sorel, Michel Piccoli; based on the novel based on the novel by Joseph Kessel

Rating: M - Mature themes, sexual references, violence and coarse language

When Belle de Jour was first released in 1967 the world of film was less jaded, and the subject matter here was unquestionably titillating. Today, when sadism/masochism has become common subject matter for ad campaigns aimed at the teenage market, we look at this film with different eyes.

If the shock value of Belle de Jour has been mitigated, director Luis Buñuel’s artistry has not. Indeed, since we are no longer shocked by the film, or see its subject matter as the novelty it once was, we are better able to evaluate it in its own terms. ...

Buñuel stays detached from the proceedings, nonjudgmental, coolly unemotional. On the surface he gives us glorious color, handsome settings of lush interiors, and chic (even today!) costuming by Yves Saint-Laurent. All this provides stark contrast to the darker sexual fantasies, the edgy threat of violence, the sleazy underworld of sex-for-hire. There are moments of comic relief, but the humor here is dark, too.

Arthur Lazere, Culture vulture

Luis Buñuel is an amazing director in all respects, a true original. He's the most famous exponent of cinematic surrealism and a marvelous commentator on the contradictions of civilization's institutions, starting with the Church of Rome. ... Good words to describe Buñuel's directing M.O. are teasing, malicious and wickedly funny: even when his story is serious, we are always aware of a motivating force that insists that all of life is a contradictory, ironic, cruel joke.

Glenn Erickson, DVD Savant

In his autobiography, Buñuel described how he found Kessel’s novel melodramatic, but how the fantasies of the titular female masochist (Catherine Deneuve, fresh off the success of Jacques Demy’s The Young Girls of Rochefort) allowed him to indulge himself in exposing bourgeois sexual perversions. Today, Belle de Jour remains Buñuel’s most recognized film, and while it’s not without its flaws, it’s a radical work that reimagines some of the director’s earlier surrealist impulses and anticipates the work of David Lynch, namely Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With me and Mulholland Drive. ...

Ed Gonzalez, Slant