Belle De Jour [VHS]

Belle De Jour [VHS]

Belle De Jour [VHS]

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Product details

Actor: Deneuve, Piccoli, Sorel
Edition: VHS Tape
Audio: French (Original Language); Spanish (Original Language)
Format: Color, HiFi Sound, NTSC, Subtitled
Running Time: 100 minutes
Release Date: 1997-01-21
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Publisher: Miramax
Studio: Miramax

VHS Movie Reviews of Belle De Jour [VHS]

Movie Review: Boring for me and probably most other female viewers
Summary: 2 Stars

I was dragged to this movie many years ago, by an enthusiastic friend. It is one of her all-time favorites. It was boring to me, and I don't think seeing other versions, with or without censored parts, will help.

I think this film will be unappealing to most other heterosexual women, unless you have a masochistic streak. My bisexual friend thought it was erotic. [This is not a slam against bisexuals.]

If you like fantasizing about some beautiful female actress in demeaning roles, you might like this film.

Movie Review: Belle de Jour
Summary: 4 Stars

This movie was very avante garde for it's time. There is no denying Catherine Deneuve's timeless beauty. The movie still has an edge to it that transcends 40 years. Quirky characters portray a passionate theme with guarded passionless expertise. This is a thought provoking film worthy of discussion on many levels. Cinematography and costuming are superlative.

Movie Review: The British Release is superior!
Summary: 3 Stars

I own both the British 40th Anniversary Edition & the U.S. release. The British release is almost infinitely better in nearly every way. The picture quality is vastly superior, looking like they put pride in making the picture up to DVD standards. The picture quality isn't quite flawless, but it's excellent though especially for a movie filmed in 1966. There is a 30 min. documentary 'History of a Film', which isn't on the U.S. release. There is also a booklet with essays on Catherine Deneuve & Luis Bunuel. The booklet also has Luis Bunuel's filmography. The commentary from Prof. Peter W. Evans was only ok. The U.S release does offer English dubbing which isn't on the British release. The British release will be the most definitive DVD release until Criterion releases it with all those extras & more in addition to excellent picture of the British release. The only unfortunate thing is that the British release is region 2 PAL, but if you have a player that can play region 2 PAL discs, by all means get it from Amazon.co.uk. It's quite inexpensive & is an exceptional value for what it offers. This is my favorite movie. The picture quality of the U.S. release looks like it was transferred from VHS, instead of being enhanced & improved for DVD release.

Movie Review: Scary and insightful
Summary: 5 Stars

In case anyone is wondering, there is such a term in French as "belle-de-nuit" and it means "prostitute" -- more evidence of Bunuel's wicked sense of humor, except that this movie isn't funny at all. In fact, it's one of the scariest movies you'll ever see. It's also one of the most profound and instructive ones. To understand why, some familiarity with philosophical issues is helpful.

The story is simple. Pierre (Sorel), a successful physician, marries beautiful Severine (Deneuve). They clearly love each other but there is something evidently wrong in the intimacy department because they sleep in separate beds and she doesn't seem all that interested. Pierre is a nice guy about it, maybe a little whimpy, and lets it go figuring that she'll eventually come around.

We are shown some flashbacks of Severine as a young girl being molested. Pierre apparently doesn't know anything about this part of his wife's past, or if he does has no reason to think it might be significant. Deneuve outwardly looks and acts "normal." How could someone so beautiful be emotionally scarred, right? Bunuel deliberately has Deneuve act the role with icy coolness and composure to cover up an ugly truth underneath.

It doesn't take long for Severine's past to catch up with her and have serious consequences -- in real life and not just the bad dreams she's been having. Severine learns from a friend about a Parisian madam running an exclusive house of prostitution. After some hesitation and false starts, Severine goes there and begins a new "career," though only from 2-5 in the afternoon to make sure she is home in time and Pierre never finds out.

Severine has a good time with her clients. Sex is now fun for her, despite (because of?) the circumstances. Her dual existence is not affecting her relationship with her husband at all, quite the contrary. She begins to show some interest in intimacy, to Pierre's delight. He can't quite explain why but hey, if you were married to a looker like Severine, would you care? Me neither.

Of course, it's all too good to be true. One of her clients is a violent gangster who develops a crush on her. Severine is powerfully attracted to him. The guy is so badly smitten that he resolves to kill Pierre so he can have Severine all to himself. Pierre survives the attack (the gangster is killed) but suffers serious injuries, leading to blindness and paralysis. He'll be stuck in a wheelchair for the rest of his life.

As in my other reviews, I'll stop here and not reveal the ending except to say that it is truly original as well as heart breaking.

Philosophical issues.

1. One of the most unnerving problems in philosophy (epistemology) is something called "the problem of other minds." I thought about working on this problem in grad school but decided it was too loony. In a nutshell, the problem is this: I know from my own experience that I have thoughts and feelings about various things, but how can I know for certain that anyone else does? For all I know, I'm the only real human being on earth and everyone else is a very convincing robot or simulacrum or figment of my imagination. Maybe you think that about me too, but I'm not worried because I have yet to have any absolutely convicing reason to think that you can think at all. Stated in less crazy terms, no matter how well we know someone, there is always some lingering doubt that we know every important fact about them. It is a "blunt fact" that we can never know anyone else as well as we know ourselves -- another person is literally another world. We all have secrets we'd rather keep, from anyone. By the time Pierre finds out Severine's, it's too late.

2. Another important problem has to do with freedom of the will. Severine was molsted as a child, which evidently has left deep scars in her character and seems to be a key reason why as an adult she embarks on a life of prostitution, even if only "part time." The question is, to what extent are we free to overcome or transcend our past influences and not allow them to guide our lives, making choices freely? There is a "tape" in everyone's head with information put there by someone else as well as information we ourselves "recorded" deliberately (or not) or in reaction to circumstances. Are we always aware of the extent to which that tape is influencing our actions and decisions? Obviously not. Even if we are, can we avoid letting that affect our lives? If not, does that mean we are not living free lives? Severine evidently is trapped in her past, unaware that her decision to sell her body for money is a form of self-abuse conditioned by being molested as a child. It seems she will be trapped in this pattern for the rest of her life.

Serious matters indeed, to which Bunuel does not offer superficial answers. But then, Bunuel is a master film maker who has thought deeply and knows how to tell a story. He is badly missed.

Movie Review: The directors dead-pan delivery may be the films Achilles heal...
Summary: 3 Stars

I had very high hopes for this film. I have recently become enamored with Catherine Deneuve (since watching her stunning performance in `Le Dernier Metro') and have been wanting to familiarize myself with her resume. When you think of the actress that is Catherine Deneuve one of the first thoughts that comes to you mind is `Belle de Jour', even if you have not seen the film. Her name has become synonymous with the films title since this is really one of her most recognizable roles.

Aside from the films star, the synopsis intrigued me and laid bare promise for a remarkable character study.

The film tells us of Severine Serizy, a young a beautiful bride who just cannot give herself fully to her husband. She loves him, but the idea of consummating their marriage is something she cannot grapple. Surprisingly her husband is okay with this, for as much as he wants to enjoy his wife in every way he loves her enough to wait until she is ready. I don't know what man would wait a full year but that is beside the point. The problem is though, that Severine is lusting for something and she is looking for an avenue in which to give herself over to her constant erotic daydreams. When a family friend (who happens to have eyes for Severine) nonchalantly mentions a house of ill repute, she finds herself approaching Madame Anais for a job. Through her newfound profession Severine is able to indulge herself without giving into her husbands requests for intimacy.

The issue I have with the film is its lack of time spent on burrowing beneath Severine's motives. One can easily draw conclusions as to why Severine refuses her husband (maintaining an image of purity) yet falls so easily into the arms of strange men (no emotional connection). In fact when a client falls for Severine it becomes apparent that she is not interested in his advances outside of the bedroom. But this is not embellished the way that it could have, and quite frankly should have been. I was really hoping that this film would transcend the boundaries of controversy and really lay it out there as to the relationship between love, lust and our inner person. It lays the foundation for an enlightening look at the power of our bodies but it never builds on that foundation the way I would have liked it to.

Severine is a very intriguing character, and Catherine Deneuve is stunning in her role. She plays to her characters weaknesses flawlessly, approaching her every action with this fragile naivity that adds layers to the motives that are not always made clear by the script. A wise may once said "when a script hands you one note, ADD NOTES!" Deneuve adds those notes. I was also very impressed with Genevieve Page's performance as the insightful and caring Madame Anais. She gives a very quiet yet profound and commanding performance.

In the end I cannot say that this was entirely satisfying. If I wasn't expecting greatness I may be more lenient, but this film had all the potential in the world, and there are times when you can see it reaching for that potential, but in the end it winds up falling short due to underdevelopment. It appears as if that consistence ambiguity may have been the directors intent, but it is an intent I feel strips the film of its central purpose thus causing it to be less than it could have been.

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Summary of Belle De Jour [VHS]

A young Paris housewife, S?verine, grows bored with her stable husband. When she learns of the presence of a high-class brothel in her neighborhood, she quietly goes to work there--but only during the day, until five o'clock in the afternoon. This sublime 1967 film is one of the latter-day masterpieces of the Spanish-born director Luis Bu?uel, whose career forms one of the greatest and boldest arcs in cinema. By the time of Belle de jour, Bu?uel had become almost completely deadpan in his style, which not only leaves the motivation of S?verine a mystery (despite a few flashbacks to degradations of her youth), but also casts the entire plot in doubt. An old surrealist from the 1920s (when his first classic, Un chien andalou, was made in collaboration with Salvador Dali), Bu?uel suggests that what we see may be real, or simply S?verine's imagination. Because he was the least pretentious of directors, Bu?uel keeps his material playful, wicked, yet cutting. As S?verine, the impossibly lovely Catherine Deneuve uses her cool demeanor to great effect--she never breaks her deadpan, either. In 1995, after having been out of official circulation for years, Belle de Jour was re-released in America and became an unexpected art-house hit. --Robert Horton

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