''Belle de Jour'' () is a 1967

drama Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance: a play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a genre of poetry in general, the dramatic mode has b ...

film directed by Luis Buñuel, and starring

Catherine Deneuve Catherine Fabienne Dorléac (born 22 October 1943), known professionally as Catherine Deneuve (, , ), is a French actress as well as an occasional singer, model, and producer, considered one of the greatest European actresses. She gained recogni ...

Jean Sorel Jean Sorel (; born 25 September 1934) is a French actor. Born Jean Bernard de Chieusses de Combaud de Roquebrune, he worked extensively in European cinema during the 1960s and 1970s with directors such as Luis Buñuel and Luchino Visconti. H ...

, and

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 ...

. Based on the 1928 novel '' Belle de jour'' by Joseph Kessel, the film is about a young woman who spends her midweek afternoons as a high-class prostitute, while her husband is at work. The title of the film is a play on words on the French term ''belle de nuit'' ("beauty of the night", i.e., a prostitute), as Séverine works during the day under the pseudonym "Belle de Jour". Her nickname can also be interpreted as a reference to the French name of the morning glory (''Convolvulaceae''), meaning "beauty of heday", a flower that blooms only during the day. ''Belle de Jour'' is one of Buñuel's most successful and famous films with many film historians calling Deneuve's performance her finest. It won the

Golden Lion The Golden Lion ( it, Leone d'oro) is the highest prize given to a film at the Venice Film Festival. The prize was introduced in 1949 by the organizing committee and is now regarded as one of the film industry's most prestigious and distinguis ...

and the Pasinetti Award for Best Film at the

Venice Film Festival The Venice Film Festival or Venice International Film Festival ( it, Mostra Internazionale d'Arte Cinematografica della Biennale di Venezia, "International Exhibition of Cinematographic Art of the Venice Biennale") is an annual film festival h ...

in 1967.

Plot

Séverine Serizy (

), a young and beautiful housewife, is unable to share physical intimacy with her husband, Dr. Pierre Serizy (

), despite their love for each other. Her sexual life is restricted to elaborate fantasies involving domination,

sadomasochism Sadomasochism ( ) is the giving and receiving of pleasure from acts involving the receipt or infliction of pain or humiliation. Practitioners of sadomasochism may seek sexual pleasure from their acts. While the terms sadist and masochist refe ...

, and

bondage Bondage may refer to: Restraints *Physical restraints **Bondage (BDSM) Bondage in the BDSM subculture, is the practice of consensually tying, binding, or restraining a partner for erotic, aesthetic, or somatosensory stimulation. A partn ...

. Although frustrated by his wife's frigidity toward him, he respects her wishes. While visiting a ski resort, they meet two friends, Henri Husson (

) and Renée ( Macha Méril). Séverine does not like Husson's manner and the way he looks at her. Back in Paris, Séverine meets up with Renée and learns that a common friend, Henriette, now works at a brothel. At her home, Séverine receives roses from Husson and is unsettled by the gesture. At the tennis courts, she meets Husson and they discuss Henriette and houses of pleasure. Husson mentions a high-class

brothel A brothel, bordello, ranch, or whorehouse is a place where people engage in sexual activity with prostitutes. However, for legal or cultural reasons, establishments often describe themselves as massage parlors, bars, strip clubs, body rub p ...

to Séverine at 11 Cité Jean de Saumur. He also confesses his desire for her, but Séverine rejects his advances. Haunted by childhood memories, including one involving a man who appears to touch her inappropriately, Séverine goes to the high-class brothel, which is run by Madame Anaïs (

Geneviève Page Geneviève Page (born Geneviève Bonjean, 13 December 1927) is a French actress with a film career spanning fifty years and also numerous English-speaking film productions. She is the daughter of French art collector Jacques Paul Bonjean (1899– ...

), who names her "Belle de Jour." That afternoon Séverine services her first client. Reluctant at first, she responds to the "firm hand" of Madame Anaïs and has sex with the stranger. After staying away for a week, Séverine returns to the brothel and begins working from two to five o'clock each day, returning to her unsuspecting husband in the evenings. One day, Husson comes to visit her at home, but Séverine refuses to see him. Still, she fantasizes about having sex with him in her husband's presence. At the same time, Séverine's physical relationship with her husband is improving and she begins having sex with him. Séverine becomes involved with a young criminal, Marcel ( Pierre Clémenti), who offers her the kind of thrills and excitement of her fantasies. When Marcel becomes increasingly jealous and demanding, Séverine decides to leave the brothel, with Madame Anaïs's agreement. Séverine is also concerned about Husson, who has discovered her secret life at the brothel. After one of Marcel's associates follows Séverine to her home, Marcel visits her and threatens to reveal her secret to her husband. Séverine pleads with him to leave, which he does, referring to her husband as "the obstacle". Marcel waits downstairs for Pierre to return home and shoots him three times. Marcel then flees but is shot dead by police. Séverine's husband survives but is left in a coma. The police are unable to find a motive for the attempted murder. Sometime later Séverine is at home taking care of Pierre, who is now paralysed, blind and in a wheelchair. Husson visits Pierre to tell him the truth about his wife's secret life; she does not try to stop him. After Husson leaves, Séverine returns to see Pierre crying. In an ambiguous ending which is hinted to be another of her fantasies, Pierre then gets out of the wheelchair, pours himself a drink and discusses holiday plans with Séverine.

Cast

as Séverine Serizy, alias Belle de Jour *

as Pierre Serizy *

as Henri Husson *

as Madame Anaïs * Pierre Clémenti as Marcel * Françoise Fabian as Charlotte * Macha Méril as Renée * Maria Latour as Mathilde * Marguerite Muni as Pallas * Francis Blanche as Monsieur Adolphe * François Maistre as The professor * Georges Marchal as Duke *

Francisco Rabal Francisco Rabal Valera (8 March 1926 – 29 August 2001), better known as Paco Rabal, was a Spanish actor, director, and screenwriter born in Águilas, a town in the south-western part of the province of Murcia, Spain. Throughout his career, Raba ...

as Hyppolite

Production

;Costume design Much of Deneuve's wardrobe was designed by Yves St. Laurent. ;Filming locations *1 Square Albin-Cachot, Paris 13, Paris, France *79 Champs-Élysées, Paris 8, Paris, France *Chalet de la Grande Cascade, Bois de Boulogne, Paris 16, Paris, France *Champs Elysées, Paris 8, Paris, France *Rue de Messine, Paris 8, Paris, France (Serizy's home)

Release

Critical response

On review aggregator

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 Wan ...

, ''Belle de Jour'' holds an approval rating of 95%, based on 58 reviews, and an average rating of 8.6/10.

Roger Ebert Roger Joseph Ebert (; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American film critic, film historian, journalist, screenwriter, and author. He was a film critic for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, Ebert beca ...

of ''

RogerEbert.com ''RogerEbert.com'' is an American film review website that archives reviews written by film critic Roger Ebert for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' and also shares other critics' reviews and essays. The website, underwritten by the ''Chicago Sun-Times ...

'' gave the film 4 stars out of 4 and included it into his Great Movies list.

Awards and nominations

Home media

American director

Martin Scorsese Martin Charles Scorsese ( , ; born November 17, 1942) is an American film director, producer, screenwriter and actor. Scorsese emerged as one of the major figures of the New Hollywood era. He is the recipient of many major accolades, incl ...

promoted a 1995 limited re-release in America and a 2002 release on DVD.

Legacy

In 2006, the Portuguese director

Manoel de Oliveira Manoel Cândido Pinto de Oliveira (; 11 December 1908 – 2 April 2015) was a Portuguese film director and screenwriter born in Cedofeita, Porto. He first began making films in 1927, when he and some friends attempted to make a film about ...

released ''

Belle Toujours ''Belle Toujours'' is a 2006 French-language Portuguese film directed by Manoel de Oliveira. It was Portugal's submission to the 80th Academy Awards for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, but was not accepted as a nominee. It is a s ...

'', imagining a future encounter between the characters of Séverine and Henri Husson from the original film. In 2010, ''Belle de Jour'' was ranked No. 56 in ''

Empire An empire is a "political unit" made up of several territories and peoples, "usually created by conquest, and divided between a dominant center and subordinate peripheries". The center of the empire (sometimes referred to as the metropole) ex ...

'' magazine's list, The 100 Best Films of World Cinema.

References

External links

* *
''Belle de jour: Tough Love''
– an essay by Melissa Anderson at The Criterion Collection {{The Golden Lion 1949–1969 1967 films 1967 drama films 1960s erotic drama films 1960s French films 1960s French-language films 1960s Italian films 1960s multilingual films 1960s psychological drama films 1960s Spanish-language films BDSM in films Films about adultery in France Films about prostitution in Paris Films about sexual repression Films based on French novels Films directed by Luis Buñuel Films produced by Robert and Raymond Hakim Films shot in Paris Films with screenplays by Jean-Claude Carrière French erotic drama films French multilingual films French psychological drama films French-language Italian films Golden Lion winners Italian erotic drama films Italian multilingual films Italian psychological drama films Spanish-language French films