Horst in Translation ([email protected]) "Belle de jour" is a novel-based co-production between France and Italy that result in this (mostly) French-language film from 1967. This means it has its 50th anniversary this year and thanks to that, several theaters here in Germany (Berlin) decided to being the film back to the big screen. First of all, I want to say that I love this decision. I wish they could bring back many old films again to theaters as I believe it is an entirely different experience to see that film at a theater than to see it at home. Unless you're a millionaire and have your own theater room in your mansion. But for everybody who doesn't, it is a unique opportunity and looking at how packed the theater today was, I am sure that many will agree and that the argument that people would not watch old films on the big screen again is simply incorrect.Now, lets take a look at this one here. Let me say first that I have not read the novel by Joseph Kessel before seeing this one. I also have not seen the film before today's viewing, it was a first time watch. And I guess I enjoyed it. The director and writer was Luis Buñuel and he was already in his late 60s when he made this one, so you can certainly say that new ideas can come to life in old shells. Looking at how sexual and free-spirited the movie is, it is easy to say that Buñuel was way ahead of his time back in the 1960s when people were still prudes, at least when it comes to sexuality in films. The lead actress is Catherine Deneuve and while I am usually definitely more into brunettes and dark-haired women, I cannot deny that she was pretty attractive in here. However, they also certainly knew how to put her in the right position, for example when we see her in an expensive coat and the two other prostitutes next to hear wear nothing but underwear, even if she was one of them.Now I mentioned prostitutes already: Yep this is a movie that takes place mostly inside a brother during its 100 minutes running time. It is about a woman who is not satisfied sexually by her very kind very charming man, but she needs what you may want to call a strong hand to tame her somehow. Or a special place where she can fulfill her sexual desires. Oh my, this sounds like 50 Shades of Grey doesn't it. Not intentional. Anyway, the brother is certainly pretty exclusive as wealthy businessmen and doctors join the girls as "customers" who want to explore their forbidden desires too (masochism e.g.). But the protagonist has more of an interest in a career criminal and not a small-time thug, but a brutal gangster actually. It becomes a relationship with deadly consequences in the end. One of the more interesting aspects of this film is certainly how the line between reality and the central character's fantasies gets more and more blurry and at the very end when we see the injured man suddenly get out of his wheelchair as if it was nothing, there is basically a complete mix-up. I also quite liked the last shot back to the sound and images of the carriage because this was where it all began with her fantasies.Finally, I want to say that the film needed a little while to really get me interested, but finally it was a fairly decent viewing I would say. It certainly gets better the longer it goes. I would not consider it an epic as many do today (I still read a description about a newer film recently where it is called a modern "Belle de jour"), but it's for sure among the better films of the 1960s. I know they showed some restored version, but boy did it look modern. But not in a bad way as it did not take away any of the film's charm I am sure. So yeah if you like Deneuved and still haven't seen it (which sounds like a really unlikely possibility because it is one of her trademark films, then you really need to see this one, preferably on a big screen. But even if you aren't a big Deneuve fan (neither am I), it is still worth checking out and be it only to show theaters that you want to see old films on the big screen because next up may be one of your very favorites. Go for it. I'm sure you won't be disappointed.

disinterested_spectator A woman is frigid and won't have sex with her husband, probably because she was molested as a child. So she goes to a psychiatrist to get help, right? Wrong! She decides to go to work in a whorehouse, where turning a few tricks in the afternoon is just the therapy she needs, especially since all her customers are kinky and twisted. Of course, their perversions are only artificial movie perversions, not the sort of thing a prostitute would be likely to encounter on a daily basis in real life.Her husband still doesn't get any sex, though, because that just is not the way she loves him. One of her jealous customers shoots her husband anyway, leaving him mute, blind, crippled, and incapable of having sex. Now she has the perfect husband. But not for long. A friend of the family decides her husband will feel as though he is a burden on his virtuous wife, so he tells him that she is a prostitute. That way he won't feel so guilty.But wait. It was all just a dream. Fooled you.

David Ferguson Greetings again from the darkness. Nearly 50 years have passed since director Luis Bunuel brought the 1928 novel of Joseph Kessel to the big screen. It's a story of erotic fantasy told with Bunuel's unique surrealistic style. The film also presents a young Catherine Deneuve at her most striking.Ms. Deneuve's Severine plays the bored housewife to her doctor husband (Jean Sorrel). He is extremely patient and understanding of her coldness in the bedroom, and it's clear that she loves him, despite the lack of physical attraction. Soon enough, we are provided a glimpse of Severine's masochistic fantasies. It's not until later that we begin to understand what drives her imagination.Severine deflects the advances of an older family friend played by Michael Piccoli, who is so attracted by her purity, and unknowingly leads her into a world that might satisfy her in ways that her gentleman husband hasn't. When Severine meets Madam Anais (Genevieve Page), she begins playing out her fantasies through the afternoon shift at the brothel ... all while keeping up appearances for society.Bunuel provides us teases of the source through flashbacks and sound effects - a carriage harness bell and the periodic meows of a cat. It's never Bunuel's intent to answer all questions, and he certainly makes no moral judgment towards Severine. Instead we get an exploration of the variances in love, sex and fantasy.In the end, we aren't absolutely certain that we can distinguish between Severine's reality and her fantasy, but we do understand the importance of her fantasies within the structure of her day to day life. If watching Ms. Deneuve perform in this gem motivates you to see more, I would recommend Roman Polanski's Repulsion. Also, it should be noted that she still acts today.

SnoopyStyle Séverine Serizy (Catherine Deneuve) is frigid with her husband Pierre. They sleep in separate beds. She has erotic daydreams. Séverine's friend Renée tells her that their friend Henriette is now working at a brothel. She is haunted by memories of her father. She follows one of the girls to a high class brothel run by Madame Anaïs who calls her "Belle de Jour".I'm sure it was shocking for its time especially in America. More than any sexual content, it is the fact that a woman has a sexual mind that is fascinating. Catherine Deneuve does the reserved lady and the conflicted sex goddess both. It is about her physical reality and mental fantasies. I didn't see it on its original run. I can certainly see it as influential for those who did.