Dagens skønhed
“Belle de
Jour” is the first of four back to back movies in French. It is not as bad as
it sounds, only one of these is by Godard, and the first to feature Catherine
Deneuve and that cannot be a bad thing.
“Belle de
Jour” is a movie by Bunuel, who seemed to travel the world to make movies.
Knowing Bunuel we are in for something out of the ordinary and he does not
disappoint on that account. The opening scene alone where Deneuve’s Severine
dreams she is taken for a ride in a horsecar only to be dragged out by three
men, stripped, bull-whipped and then “had” by one of the men, is so
spectacularly different from standard fare that we know we are in for a ride
here.
Severine is
married to Pierre (Jean Sorel), a surgeon, and live a comfortable upper, or
sub-upper, class life. Severine is a controlled ice queen who has difficulty
being physical with her husband. Instead she phantasies about being sexually
humiliated and losing control, essentially the opposite of her real-life
situation. Severine is painfully aware of this dichotomy and is trying to find
some way to realize this fantasy without compromising her ordinary life. Instinctively
she feels that exploring that avenue can unlock her sexually.
When she
hears about a brothel, she decides to try it out and become a prostitute, only,
living out your fantasy is not an easy thing and being a prostitute is not a
romance. Yet Severine persevere and find fulfillment in being degraded from two
to five every weekday. It actually does wonders to her relationship with her husband.
That is, until the gangster Marcel (Pierre Clémenti) shows up. He falls in love
with Severine and wants her all the time, not just between two and five. This
comes to a clash where Marcel shoots and cripple Pierre only to get himself
killed by the police. Pierre being helpless and learning about Severine’s “fall”
apparently sets Severine entirely free.
There is a
lot here I do understand and is very interesting. Severine’s attempt to unlock
her sexuality through degradation oddly enough makes sense. There is a part of
her she is suppressing and somehow she has to deal with it, her marriage
depends on it. It is not the easiest thing to go up to your husband and tell
him you want him to throw mud at you, but that is not what this is about.
Sexual interaction is forbidden by Severine in her virginal state. She must
crush that shell to unlock her sexuality and become a “bad” girl. Being
degraded makes her “bad”. Freedom is not to have to be clean. I also understand
that Marcel is a personification of her “bad” side, while Pierre is her “good”
side and their annihilation means that she can reconcile her two parts, but
this part of the movie did not work as well for me as the first part. On the
face of it it seems that we are leaving the story of Severine trying to heal
herself through the rather dangerous double life she is living, to jump into a
deadly love triangle with guns and violence. It is a change of pace and topic
that feels out of touch with the preceding part of the movie. Only by reading
it symbolically does it fit together, and I am not entirely enamored with these
literary tricks. Also, I think it is a bit excessive that Pierre has to be
ruined for Severine to be healed. Less should do it.
“Belle de
Jour” is a beautiful film. The restored Blu-ray version I watched has bright
and sharp colors and the people, Deneuve particularly, look gorgeous. I am
certain that is intended, Severine has to be a fallen angel. Considering the
topic this could easily have been a very lurid movie, but we actually see
remarkably little actual action. Even the discourse avoids the vulgar and coarse
and I suppose this is why the movie actually works, rather than being an exposé
on depravity. It is tempting to link
this movie to the much later movie “La Pianiste” where Isabelle Huppert is a
woman with a similar problem, but that one does go overboard in sexual excess
and becomes very uncomfortable to watch, something “Belle de Jour” never does.
It is a
recommendation from me.
Haven't seen this for several years. Looking forward to it!
ReplyDeleteIt is one of those movies I am hesitant to recommend. It works for me, but I can see how it would not work for everybody. I would say it is something to look forward to.
DeleteI rather liked this film. It goes in a few directions, but all of them work.
ReplyDeleteThey do. As I commented on your review it is a clever movie with some interesting psychology. Only issue is that maybe it goes too far on symbolism.
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