Belle de jour

An erotic drama with Catherine Deneuve in the lead role—and Luis Buñuel’s first foray into colour.

1967, Luis Buñuel

France—Italy
100 minutes, French with Russian subtitles

Starring: Catherine Deneuve, Jean Sorel, Michel Piccoli , Geneviève Page

A wife, unable to realise her sexual phantasies with her husband, does it in a brothel, which she visits exclusively during the day, whilst her husband is at work—a habit that earns her the nickname Belle de jour. The line-up of clients is joined by a young gangster, Marcel, who will pull the trigger on the film’s dramatic plot.

Shot from Belle de jour, 1967

Pervading the film, usefully enough, are not the enticements of sensuality but the sadnesses of a society in which love and sensuality are seen too seldom as a unity and too frequently as a mutually destructive tangle.

— Charles Champlin, Los Angeles Times