Bella di giorno ~ Belle de Jour (1967) **

Belle de Jour was hyped up quite a bit while I was in college. I pretty excited to watch it. I was able to watch it my Senior year (1996) in the Michigan Theater.


From Netflix:

Severine (Catherine Deneuve) is a wealthy young newlywed who's eager to live life to the fullest. Although she loves her husband, Severine can't bring herself to be intimate with him. To sate her physical desires, she indulges in erotic daydreams, often blurring the line between reality and fantasy. When that's not enough, she begins frequenting a classy Parisian brothel, working as a prostitute while remaining celibate within her marriage.




Length:
100 minutes

Director:
Luis Buñuel
Cast:
Catherine Deneuve
Jean Sorel
Michel Piccoli
Geneviève Page

The first scene was pretty graphic. Catherine Deneuve is tied to a tree and beginning whipped and then raped. I thought, "Bloody Hell!? This was created back in 1960s?" Then I felt ROBBED! We suddenly realize that this was merely a tease. This was only to get people into the theater to watch and talk about it. While it was pretty daring at it's time, the film ends up not being as deviant as suggested.

This film does not put a good light on house wives that are lady of leisure. This is great example of how idle hands are the devil's tools. Deneuve decides to have a bit of excitement in her dull life as a rich newlywed wife. Her husband's sexual needs are pathetic in her eyes. She wants something hard, grittier, more exciting. So she goes to work in a bordello. A BORDELLO!?! I am not sure how one even finds a bordello. I guess I am pretty sheltered.

She goes to work and then she places her specific demands of what she will or will not do. It is pretty mild. The trouble comes when a man who is more than she can handle, but desperately wants due to his element of danger takes a fancy for her. She believes that she can call the shots still. Right. . . when she realizes that she is in over her head, she tries to break it off. He says no. She is incredulous when he continues to pursue her. It goes from bad to worse when he stalks her and threatens to blackmail her.

Note to all who are getting action outside of their relationship in secret: THERE IS ALWAYS THE POTENTIAL FOR BLACKMAIL! I enjoyed watching how badly she wanted him and how he excites her with his light BDSM nuances in their sexual play. It isn't surprising that they are sexually compatible. The issue is that she is married to another man.

Her dangerous lover ends up severely hurting her husband. He becomes a paraplegic. He feels so terrible that she must take care of him. He doesn't know that this random violence (to him) was a targeted attack. In his eyes, he is guilt ridden and his wife is a paragon of a dutiful wife. This only makes Deneuve feel even guiltier. She confides in a mutual friend of her husbands, coincidentally the one that introduced her to the bordello. Then the worst occurs, her secret is revealed to her husband. The scene ends with tears streaming down his face, sitting in a wheel chair.