Belle de Jour (film)
**Overview of *Belle de Jour* (film)**
*Belle de Jour* is a notable film directed by Luis Buñuel, renowned for his influential contributions to cinema and surrealist storytelling. Released in 1967, the film stars Catherine Deneuve as Severine Serizy, a Parisian housewife who grapples with her sexual fantasies involving domination and submission. Despite her claims of frigidity, Severine finds a new sense of liberation by secretly working as a prostitute in an upscale brothel during the day, under the pseudonym "Belle de Jour." The film explores complex themes such as the intersection of fantasy and reality, the hypocrisy of the bourgeoisie, and the constraints of a patriarchal society.
The narrative unfolds as Severine's dual life leads to both personal empowerment and dire consequences, particularly when she becomes entangled with a gangster client. Buñuel’s film is characterized by its ambiguous portrayal of dreams versus reality, notably in its conclusion that raises questions about Severine's desires and her societal role. *Belle de Jour* was critically acclaimed and commercially successful, earning over $20 million and winning the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival. It remains a significant work in Buñuel's oeuvre, reflecting his enduring focus on social critique and human psychology.
Belle de Jour (film)
- Release Date: 1967
- Director(s): Luis Buñuel
- Writer(s): Jean-Claude Carrière; Luis Buñuel
- Principal Actors and Roles: Catherine Deneuve (Séverine Serizy); Genevieve Page (Madame Anaïs); Michel Piccoli (Henri Husson); Jean Sorel (Pierre Serizy); Pierre Clementi (Marcel); Francoise Fabian (Charlotte)
- Book / Story Film Based On: Belle de jour by Joseph Kessel
Belle de Jour is a celebrated film directed by Luis Buñuel, the acclaimed director of such other classic films as Viridiana (1961) and The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (1972). Born in Spain in 1900, Buñuel is considered one of the greatest directors in the history of the cinema. While his career spanned nearly fifty years, his films are notable for their thematic consistency. Many of his favorite themes are on hand in Belle de Jour: his ridiculing of the bourgeoisie or privileged class; his interest in dreams and how they often can seem indistinct from real life; and, lastly, his concern with the patriarchy and how it can stifle freedom of expression, including sexual expression.
Plot
Severine Serizy is a beautiful Parisian housewife. Although she claims to be frigid and unable to have sex with her husband Pierre, she has sexual fantasies that involve domination and submission.
Severine and her husband are friendly with a couple, Husson and Renee. From them Severine learns of a brothel where a friend of theirs is employed. Severine visits the brothel and soon begins spending her afternoons there, working as a prostitute without Pierre’s knowledge. Because she does not work in the evenings, the brothel’s manager, Madame Anais, gives her the name "Belle de Jour" or "Woman of the Day."
The brothel caters to well-to-do customers and while working there Severine services affluent men with a variety of tastes. Her romantic life with Pierre also undergoes a marked improvement.
In spite of the upscale nature of the brothel, one of Severine’s clients, Marcel, is a gangster. Marcel proves particularly adept at satisfying Severine’s sexual fantasies, but he also becomes obsessed with her, so as a result, with Madame Anais’ blessing, Severine decides to leave the brothel.
Before she does so, however, Marcel has an underling follow Severine from the brothel to her home. Marcel confronts her there, threatening to tell her husband about her afternoons working at the brothel. Marcel refers to Pierre as an "obstacle," and shortly afterward he shoots Pierre, leaving him paralyzed and in a wheelchair.
Marcel tries to flee but is shot dead by the police. Husson, who has long had an obsession with Severine, comes to her home where he threatens to tell Pierre about her former life as a prostitute. Severine makes no effort to stop him, and later, in what might be a dream or a fantasy, Pierre is able to walk again. He and Severine now enjoy a successful and fulfilling marital relationship.
Significance
Belle de Jour was Buñuel’s most commercially successful film, earning more than $20 million. The obvious explanation is the film’s eroticism and the regal beauty of its star, Catherine Deneuve. Prior to starring in Belle de Jour, Deneuve had played a sexually repressed young woman in Roman Polanski’s 1965 film Repulsion and, dressed in clothes created by Yves Saint-Laurent in Belle de Jour, she became an erotic icon.
Beyond the film’s commercial success, however, critics have widely admired it as an outstanding example in Buñuel’s legendary body of work. Buñuel was an early practitioner of Surrealism, the artistic movement born in the 1920s whose goal was to unleash the power of the unconscious mind. Buñuel’s classic 1929 short film Un Chien Andalou, made with famed eccentric artist Salvador Dali, is an early Surrealist classic, and in Belle de Jour he continually blurs the line between fantasy and reality. Buñuel introduces the viewer to this ambiguity early in the film when Severine is pictured daydreaming in bed after Pierre had two of his servants sexually humiliate her, apparently as retribution for her cold behavior toward him. It is unclear whether the incident actually occurred or it was a product of her imagination. Another obvious example is the ending. It would appear that Pierre has miraculously recovered from the shooting so that he and Severine can achieve the domestic bliss that they had been trying to attain when she discovered her sexual liberation while working at the brothel. However, the ending might also represent an act of wish fulfillment for Severine, who has managed to escape consequences for the transgression that she committed in becoming a prostitute.
Along with exploring the often-indistinguishable lines between fantasy and reality, Buñuel is concerned in Belle de Jour with satirizing the bourgeoisie. His sympathy for the poor—expressed in his classic film Los Olvidados (1950)—and his dislike of autocracy led him to be suspicious of the privileged class, whose actions he often viewed as misguided and hypocritical. In Belle de Jour he mocks the way that the members of the bourgeoisie regard themselves as sexually adventurous even though, in Buñuel’s view, they are pathetically unimaginative and their fantasies often involve asserting their superiority over others. Severine is able to turn that hypocrisy to her advantage because she uses it to indulge a forbidden part of herself.
Typically for him, Buñuel focuses not only on the bourgeoisie but also the detrimental effects of a patriarchal society. Buñuel views the patriarchy as being closely connected with religion, particularly the Catholic Church, which often caused him to be the recipient of the church’s ire. He expresses great concern in his films, including Belle de Jour, that the patriarchy is capable of stifling basic human needs that prevent the happiness that is obtained through free expression, including the expression of sexual desire.
Severine is a member of the privileged class but she can only achieve liberation by engaging in sexual acts and fantasies that involve being dominated and humiliated by men. To some degree she becomes the perpetrator rather than the victim: her afternoons at the brothel help her to develop her own identity separate from that of her husband but at the same time she becomes the conventional bourgeoisie housewife capable of giving him the sexual satisfaction that he seeks.
Belle de Jour won the Golden Lion award at the Venice Film Festival and is on Empire magazine’s list of the 100 greatest films of all time. Buñuel died in 1983 but the film remains one of the most remarkable achievements in his career.
Awards and nominations
Won
- Venice Film Festival (1967) Golden Lion: Luis Buñuel
- Venice Film Festival (1967) Pasinetti Award: Luis Buñuel
Bibliography
Aranda, J. Francisco. Luis Buñuel: A Critical Biography. Boston: De Capo, 1976.
Buñuel, Luis. My Last Sigh: The Autobiography of Luis Buñuel. New York: Vintage, 2013.
Edwards, Gwynne. The Discreet Art of Luis Buñuel: A Reading of His Films. London: Boyars, 2000.
Evans, Peter William. The Films of Luis Buñuel: Subjectivity and Desire. Oxford: Clarendon, 1995.
Mellen, Joan. The World of Luis Buñuel: Essays in Criticism. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1978.