''Belle Toujours'' is a 2006 French-language Portuguese film directed by
Manoel de Oliveira. It was Portugal's submission to the
80th Academy Awards
The 80th Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), honored the best films of 2007. The award ceremony took place on February 24, 2008, at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles. During t ...
for the
Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, but was not accepted as a nominee. It is a sequel to the film ''
Belle de Jour'' (1967).
Plot
Severine and Henri are reunited decades after their earlier encounter in
Luis Buñuel
Luis Buñuel Portolés (; 22 February 1900 – 29 July 1983) was a Spanish-Mexican filmmaker who worked in France, Mexico, and Spain. He has been widely considered by many film critics, historians, and directors to be one of the greatest and ...
's 1967 film, ''
Belle de Jour''. Severine is reluctant to see Henri again, yet he is adamant about seeing her again. She resents that by seeing her former blackmailer she has to confront her past of adultery and prostitution. Nevertheless, she is curious to know whether Henri revealed her secret life to her paralysed doctor husband as he was dying.
Reception
The film was generally well received. It holds a 71% "fresh" rating on
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...
based on 42 reviews, with an
average score of 6.29/10. The site's consensus reads: "An unexpectedly moving sequel to Luis Bunuel's ''Belle du Jour'', ''Belle Toujours'' is a short and sweet elegy on aging, sexuality, and the power of cinema".
Philip French writing in ''
The Observer
''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. It is a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' and '' The Guardian Weekly'', whose parent company Guardian Media Group Limited acquired it in 1993. First published in 1791, it is the ...
'' described the film as "caviar to the general, but an elegant treat for cinephiles."
[ '' Time Out'' said that the film offers "a deceptive, philosophical and cautionary meditation, not only on age, appetite, pleasure, betrayal, mendacity, revenge and disillusionment but also in idle curiosity."][. 20–26 November 2008.]
Nominations
European Film Awards
The European Film Awards (or European Film Academy Awards) have been presented annually since 1988 by the European Film Academy to recognize excellence in European cinematic achievements. The awards are given in 19 categories, of which the mo ...
*European Film Award for Best Actor
The European Film Award for Best Actor is an award given out at the annual European Film Awards to recognize an actor who has delivered an outstanding leading performance in a film industry. The awards are presented by the European Film Academy (E ...
– Michel Piccoli
Jacques Daniel Michel Piccoli (27 December 1925 – 12 May 2020) was a French actor, producer and film director with a career spanning 70 years. He was lauded as one of the greatest French character actors of his generation who played a wide vari ...
Golden Globes (Portugal)
The Golden Globes ( pt, Globos de Ouro) are awards given each year in Portugal since 1996 by the Golden Globes Academy, made up by professionals of SIC TV and Caras magazine, which award several areas of art and entertainment in the country, ...
*Best Film – Manoel de Oliveira
LUX Prize 2007
*Best Film
The film was also in the Official Selection of the 63rd Venice International Film Festival
The 63rd annual Venice International Film Festival, held in Venice, Italy, was opened on 30 August 2006 with Brian De Palma's '' The Black Dahlia'' and was closed on 9 September 2006. Host of the event was Italian actress Isabella Ferrari.
Dur ...
, screened in the "Out of Competition" section.
See also
*Cinema of Portugal
The Cinema of Portugal started with the birth of the medium in the late 19th century. Cinema was introduced in Portugal in 1896 with the screening of foreign films and the first Portuguese film was ''Saída do Pessoal Operário da Fábrica Con ...
*
References
External links
*
2006 drama films
2006 films
Films directed by Manoel de Oliveira
Films shot in Paris
2000s French-language films
Portuguese sequel films
Portuguese drama films
{{Portugal-film-stub