Average Bufph Rating: 5.0 / 5.0
Catherine Deneuve, Jean Sorel, Michel Piccoli
1967
A frigid young housewife decides to spend her midweek afternoons as a prostitute.
Exploring Luis Buñuel's surrealist oeuvre, Belle de Jour is a visual feast that juxtaposes the mundane with the bizarre, crafting a narrative that is as unsettling as it is enchanting. Deneuve's performance is captivating, her porcelain beauty masking a burgeoning restlessness. Buñuel's mise-en-scène is meticulously crafted, each frame a tableau vivant that invites the viewer to ponder the underlying currents of desire and ennui. The film's exploration of bourgeois ennui and repressed sexuality is both a critique and a celebration of the era's social mores, making it a provocative and thought-provoking addition to my library. The use of color and light to evoke mood is particularly noteworthy, enhancing the film's dreamlike quality.
