Belle de jour

France, Italy, 1967

Fantasy, Drama

Synopsis

A frigid, beautiful housewife in Paris with a kinky, sadomasochistic imagination starts an afternoon job as a prostitute in a local brothel while her husband is away at work.

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Belle de jour Directed by Luis Buñuel

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Awards & Festivals

Cannes Film Festival

2017 | Cannes Classics

Venice Film Festival

1967 | 2 wins including: Golden Lion

Berlin International Film Festival

2008

Telluride Film Festival

2004

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Articles from the Notebook

Truffaut Lighting a Cigarette for Buñuel

On the meetings of François Truffaut and Luis Buñuel.

The Forgotten: Libertine or Death

Michel Deville can't, or shouldn't, be considered forgotten, can/should he? He's still alive, and his last film was as recent as 2005 (Un...

The endless appeal of Belle du jour, I won't be the first to say, is its insistence on the fantasy and the reality; one doesn't replace or resolve the other, just as cobbling together an origin story to explain our most singular obsessions cannot exorcise them. As Buñuel knew, a shoe is a shoe is a shoe—unless it's so much more.

Elina Alter

May 13, 2015

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Some Came Running

I believe J. Hoberman has called this "a perfect film" and he is indeed correct. Not only is there nothing wrong with it, there's everything right with it. So much is going on, and yet all of it seems effortless, comfortable in mastery and drollery. The choppiness of the cuts in the opening "dream" sequence is bracing (and reminiscent of the dedication ceremony scene in L'age d'or somehow) but also weirdly sets the film's fluidity of tone.

Glenn Kenny

January 10, 2015

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The New York Review of Books

Belle de Jour, Luis Buñuel’s coolly outrageous masterpiece (and greatest commercial success), features Catherine Deneuve as a haute bourgeois matron who spends her afternoons working at a respectable, but hardly deluxe, brothel. As flawless as its star, the movie is founded on the great surrealist’s genius for free-associative chitchat and orchestrated Freudian slips, right down to its teasingly open ending.

J. Hoberman

February 27, 2018

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What are people saying?

William R Clark's rating of the film Belle de jour
William R Clark

So effete and so raunchy at the same time.
February 12, 2017 17:44
- 3
- 0
Dorabella's rating of the film Belle de jour
Dorabella

I have a cinematic crush on Catherine Deneuve so...I am like swooon. Plus its a great female narrative and I relate to Severin. I also LOVE that they made Severin a WOMAN in this. Like, yesss. I love the exploration of sadomasochism in this film, especially through a woman. As I am sadomsochistic. Pretty in love with this film. Its def a favorite.
December 30, 2018 00:34
- 5
- 0
tomfdzv's rating of the film Belle de jour
tomfdzv

Amazing, that surrealism that buñuel ads to his movies is perfect, a confusing but great plot
May 14, 2015 00:23
- 2
- 0
El Biffo's rating of the film Belle de jour
El Biffo

One of Bunuel's finest.
February 15, 2014 09:22
- 11
- 0
Matt Pritchard's rating of the film Belle de jour
Matt Pritchard

Like a 90 minute dream sequence. Fantastic film, not very erotic for an erotic film. Catherine Deneuve shows she is both a great actress and a goddess.
January 05, 2010 02:27
- 4
- 0
Henri de Corinth's rating of the film Belle de jour
Henri de Corinth

Rewatch of a 4K restoration (co-financed by Saint Laurent!) in cinemas for its 50th anniversary. BdJ marks the apex of bourgeois anxiety if we view Buñuel, Dalì, et al and the 'surrealist' tradition for what they were: rich kids slumming it for a while.
April 17, 2018 13:00
- 1
- 1
Daniel Roque's rating of the film Belle de jour
Daniel Roque

The surrealist dichotomy between Séverine's reality and fantasy is quite unclear, but what we can be sure is that Catherine Deneuve is perfect in a classy prostitute role, providing the exact amount of sex-appeal and naivety to portray an uncomfortable housewife trying to expand her curiosity about sex.
December 07, 2015 00:26
- 5
- 0
ig_____or's rating of the film Belle de jour
ig_____or

More like "Slut de Jour"! Is there anything cooler than a housewife-turned-prostitute dressed in classy outfits? No wonder it was such an iconic role for Deneuve's career. What I love the most about it is the depiction of a transgressive desire we all secretly have but only a few actually embrace. Séverine was a bad girl but damn was she good at it! The dream sequences and childhood flashbacks were nice too!
November 15, 2015 10:25
- 3
- 0