Rating: 
Summary: how nice!!!!!
Review: This is one of the best Catherine Deneuve films. I mean, I hate to tag her with the usual stereotypical arguement that this single movie can represent her entire career, because she's played many parts that contradict that. However, it does represent her ability to express all of her curdling emotions with one single gaze. At first, the film might sound a little unconventional. It's the story of a doctor's wife that is unable to respond to her husband's love, and decides to live out her desires by working the afternoons in a bourgeois Parisian brothel. Some people have even called it dated. This may all be true, but in my opinion, the acting of Catherine Deneuve and Genevieve Page(playing Madame Anais who runs the brothel) is enough to snap you into this surrealistic world where fantasies become realities. Or do they...That's the other thing. Through the entire film, we are taken on this ride through the mind of the young Severine and her seemingly masochistic fantasies. The fantasies are utimately acted out when she goes to work at the brothel, but with the ever presence of this shady line between fantasy and reality, we rarely know when to treat a fantasy as ficticious as we should. The dreams allow the viewer to use their imagination without feeling guilty. Due to the stylish surroundings, the gorgeous people (except for that guy with Hippolyte, cause he was nasty), and the wonderful direction of Luis Bunuel, you can't really blame anyone who decides to change their day job. This movie is the perfect chocolate that us convicts need to open up.
Rating: 
Summary: Prostitution in the Afternoon
Review: A rather dated and arguably misogynous film about a beautiful upper middle class housewife who has everything but prostitution in the afternoon. Those who "understand" the picture may marvel at how it ridicules the hypocrisy of society (how shocking!) and other brilliant ideas, but most people probably enjoy this film because of Catherine Deneuve, who went on to bigger and better things playing a call girl opposite Burt Reynolds.
Rating:
Summary: Awe-inspiring, surreal, erotic black comedy masterpiece
Review: When I am too old to do much more than entertain myself with my library of favorite movies, I will undoubtably be watching this one from my bed in the nursing home. In the 40 or so years I still have until I turn 80, I'll never tire of seeing the most captivating woman ever to grace a movie screen (that includes you, Grace) working her sexual fantasies (subjective things, those fantasies) out. The most powerful elements of artful cinema-the ability to involve and transport you into time and place better than any medium-make your time spent with Mme. Severine (Catherine Deneuve) in 1960's Paris more than gratifying! One of the very few movies that actually get better as time passes.
Rating: 
Summary: Some fantasies are best kept as fantasies
Review: Deneuve's character, Severine, seems to have everything: a loving husband and comfortable life. She also has an active life in fantasy, imagining herself in erotic situations too bizarre to share wit her straight-laced husband. Eventually she finds work at a bordello, and lets some of those domination fantasies come to life. Even better, she gets a chance to explore others' imagination, and finds more oddities than her sheltered background readied her for. Life doesn't turn out as a fantasy should though - saying more would give away the rest.
Deneuve is beautiful, of course. The 1970-ish styles in hair and clothes look a bit quaint now. There are the wide sideburns for men, and almost a Jackie Kennedy look for the women, with straight-waisted dresses. The look is true to its time, though. The bordello, however, is all fantasy. Severine (or Belle de Jour as she is known) gets off to a fitful start. She sudden shies and bolts partway through her first encounter, and is given a lot more chances to get it right than a credible employer would have offered.
It's not often clear which scenes are real and which are products of her imagination, but it may not matter. The tone of the movie is moralistic: "if you're a bad girl, bad things happen in the end." For all that, the bad-girl behavior is more a hint than a display. Today's viewers will find it much tamer than the original audiences did.
There's a lot to like here. The good-girl/bad-girl double life is an idea that can work in many ways, and be adapted to many times. Perhaps this movie worked in its time, but current standards of "how bad is bad" seem to have left it behind. I hoped for more.
//wiredweird
Rating:
Summary: Great exercise in surrealism, and yes the quality is fine!
Review: "Belle de Jour" is generally considered to be director Luis Bunuel's masterpiece; a surprisingly revealing and seemingly personal venture into the world of eroticism and its deviances. It's a truly surrealistic exercise in ambiguity, fantasy, and reality. The line that separates them is blurred so much that the famously mysterious ending has had critics arguing for decades over its meaning.
The fantasy sequences are usually signalled by the sound of carriage bells, but by the end of the film the viewer is no longer able to differentiate between what is another one of Severine's fantasies and what is reality. Even Bunuel admitted to not knowing himself. He said that "by the end, the real and imaginary fuse; for me they form the same thing."
The gorgeous Catherine Deneuve, resplendent in her icy prime, portrays Severine Sevigny, the middle-class wife of Pierre, a doctor. She is frigid, virginal, yet seemingly happy enough in her bourgeoisie life and its trappings. However, upon hearing about a local clandestine brothel from a friend, she pays a visit to the madame, and becomes a prostitute, going by the name of "Belle de Jour", as she can only work in the afternoons. She apparently fully realizes and enjoys her sexuality, despite her guilty conscience, exclaiming that she "can't help it". She certainly doesn't need the money. She's bored with her life and her marriage, needing a "firm hand" to lead her; a need which the madame, Anais, who is obviously attracted to her, almost immediately recognizes. Her sweet and conventional husband is unaware, treating her much like a child, and the audience cannot help but believe that even if he knew of her true nature, he would not understand or empathize. She keeps her two worlds neatly separate until a patron of hers (whom she herself enjoys) becomes obsessed with her, and all is threatened.
That Alfred Hithcock in particular admired this film comes as no surprise to me; Deneuve would have been the perfect Hitchcock heroine: an icy blonde who becomes "a whore in the bedroom", as Hitchock was fond of saying he preferred in his leading ladies. But this remark is not meant to simplfy the story, its telling, or Deneuve's remarkable performance, which is what truly draws the viewer into the film.
"Belle de Jour" was Bunuel's first foray into the use of color, and he employed it to great effect. From the fall colors displayed in the landscape scenes, to the subtle shades in Deneuve's clothing, the contrasts are set. While the world around her explodes in glorious hues, Deneuve's character is defined by her couture, if staid, wardrobe of tan, black, and white.
"Belle de Jour" was unreleased for many years due to copyright problems, but finally re-released in 1995 through the efforts of director Martin Scorcese, and released on DVD in 2003. I've watched it twice in the past week and am still at a loss to describe it very well; suffice to say that I am in awe. It's an amazingly erotic film without any explicitness, and one that I expect hasn't lost any of its effect over the years. As the subject matter is handled very tactfully and without any actual sex scenes; a great deal is left to the viewer's imagination - which only serves the heighten the mysteries inherent at every turn in the film. The viewer is however drawn into the sense of feeling to be a voyeur into Severine's secret life; the careful choreography of scenes and camera angles contribute to the uncomfortable sense of intrusion by us, the viewers.
There are many sub-stories and small mysteries in the film; for instance one of the most widely debated upon by critics is the mystery of "what is in the Asian client's little box?" that he presents first to one prostitute, who quickly refuses, then to Severine, who tentatively agrees. All the audience know is that it's something with a insect-like noise, and when the client leaves, Severine is sprawled face-down upon the bed, the sheets thrown about, and obviously pleased with whatever took place in the interim.
"Belle de Jour" was awarded the Golden Lion at the 1967 Venice Film Festival, as well as the award for Best Foreign Film in 1968 from the New York Film Critics Circle.
Interesting side notes: Bunuel himself had a shoe fetish, which helps explain the numerous shots of Deneuve's beautifully clad feet throughout the film, and the fact that every time she goes shopping, she buys shoes. He also appears in the film in a cameo as a cafe patron, and in another scene his hands are shown loading a gun.
Rating:
Summary: Sexual Perversion or Enhancement
Review: Surrealism was an art movement particular to the 1930's. Max Ernst and the more famous Spanish painter Salvador Dali are the best examples of visual art lending to Freudian symbolism. The idea: we have a secret inner world of thought or memories hidden from our conscious world unless we remember and interpret our dreams, our mistakes, and our peculiar protocol of every day life. These snatches are the dirty little sexual secrets of incestuous desire and are the parts of suppression. We can't act out those secrets. Look what happened to Oedipus. He put out his eyes.
I wouldn't say that Catherine Deneuve is deadpan in her portrayal of a 23-year-old well to do wife of a physician as some reviewers are suggesting. She does have scenes of stress and anger, but Bunuel preferred under acting for his female protagonist and overacting for his villain-lover, young Marcel of the bad teeth and murderous swagger. Some women may prefer sex with killers as an enhancement? But Deneuve is blond-beautiful in a classy 1966 Parisian way. Her undergarments are strictly Victoria Secret of today. Pantyhose must have come in with the mini-skirt by late 1967, but these garments, the perversion of desire, are most revealing and most sensual. You won't run off howling at the moon after one of Belle de jour's liaisons, but an adventurous couple might wink at the varied possibilities of human sexual perversion or enhancement.
This is not French New Wave. I know many will not agree with me. This film, because it mixes fantasy with reality, or sexual role-playing with ordinary life, it is akin to the arts of the 1920's and 30's. There is much connection here to the silent films made in Germany between the wars. This is a very fine film.
Rating:
Summary: What's up with the chinese box ?
Review: This film is amazing . Only the fertile imagination of this innovative director could produce such artistic triumph .
Bunuel focuses his inquiring sight in the life of a boring marriage . He is a burgois gentilhomme and is married with a goddess (Catherine Deneuve).
And since the curiosity at last allows her to break the rules and become in a double life woman where she will experience something completely different .
The surrealistic mood and the spiral dreams remind us the inner and hidden demons which suddenly will appear without previous warning and will emerge with their unexpected wildness .
Masoquism , erotism and all a wide variety of erotic elements will run before your eyes .
The camera work is gorgeous and the script is overwhelming .
Superb,haunting and intense film .
Rating:
Summary: A work of art...Brilliant!!!
Review: Belle De Jour is not an easy film to explain; it is a rich, complicated and haunting work that defies explanation or sense. In short, the lovely Catherine Deneuve plays Severine, a bored housewife to a very handsome young surgeon who tries to fill the empty void in her life by becoming a prostitute during the day.
Just about everything in the film is open to interpretation, from the disturbing opening sequence to the beautiful conclusion. Bunuel's genius allows hom to stand back and let his audience fill the gaps in their imagination and, if necessary, implicate themselves. In Deneuve, director Bunuel has found a brilliant blank canvas for the audience to express themselves upon; never fully clear on her motivations (though some tantalizing flashbacks offer hints), she alternates between classic French coldness and classic French passion and though is always fully aware of how to manipulate the spell she's cast over you.
This is a great example of a master of cinema in deep collaboration with a master actress--their exploration of the female psyche runs the gamut of every possible emotion while never being crass or lowering themselves to merely reducing and simplifying.
Belle De Jour is a fine work of art, a grand and glorious film that is beautiful and breathtaking even today. The fact that it stands the test of time so well and maintains the power to shock, entertain, and make one think should make it an instant classic. This is a terrific film; erotic without sex and nudity; and powerful because of the exceptional performances. Be prepared to watch and want to have a long discussion afterward.
Rating:
Summary: Truly exceptional cinematic experience...
Review: A life in the upper-class requires many things such as leisure, discretion, grace, and money. Severine Serizy (Catherine Deneuve) has all these qualities in an abundance as she goes about her daily duties such as shopping and playing tennis while maintaining an exterior beauty. In this luxurious environment the women often find themselves bored, depressed, or discontented with their lives as they often seek other means of exploring life. A friend of Severine reveals that one of her acquaintances is secretly working as a prostitute for monetary purposes. This fascinates Severine's innocent curiosity as she is rather oblivious of sex and her own sexuality. Through a friend of her husband, who also is attracted by Severine's innocent sex appeal, Severine learns the whereabouts of a small private brothel. The curiosity of Severine forces her to explore the brothel as well as her own sexuality as she begins to deal with her guilt, morality, and her Catholic values.
Belle de Jour is a film that explores the human curiosity when time and place is conveniently infused with what is forbidden. Severine's curiosity presents itself when her boredom sets in as it does through her daily routine, which lacks significant meaning. The time and place for Severine's curiosity is presented through her friends as they serve her the forbidden fruit. Initially Severine circles the issue like a cat around hot milk that is afraid of getting burnt, but when she takes a bite of the forbidden fruit she becomes obsessed with what has been presented to her. However, it also presents a backside of the issue at hand as she must deal with the moral consequences of what she is doing.
Luis Bunuel directed a brilliant film that is full of allegorical imagery that urges the audience to ponder the dualism of Severine's situation. The dualism stems from what Severine desires as it produces both guilt and pleasure interjectionally. Bunuel creates this guilt-pleasure atmosphere with an artistic manner that is saturated in psychological insights of moral predicaments. This is visualized though Bunuel's brilliant direction as it offers a truly exceptional cinematic experience.
Rating:
Summary: Jaw-droppingly unique!
Review: The first time I saw this film, I fell instantly in love with it. The further I was drawn into the film, the deeper I was taken into the mystery of the story. Great storytelling by the French who have always been progressive in filmmaking. This is a very sexy film starring the ageless beauty, Catherine Deneuve. She is beautiful in the film and is the reason for the unforgettable quality of the film.
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