Belle de Jour (2002) France, Italy
Belle de Jour Image Cover
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Director:Luis Buñuel
Studio:Studio Canal
Producer:Raymond Hakim, Robert Hakim, Henri Baum
Writer:Luis Buñuel, Joseph Kessel
Rating:8
Rated:R
Date Added:2014-09-02
UPC:786936169881
Price:$19.99
Awards:Nominated for BAFTA Film Award. Another 4 wins
Genre:Drama, Foreign
Release:2002-01-22
IMDb:0061395
Location:1379
Duration:96
Picture Format:Anamorphic Widescreen
Aspect Ratio:1.66:1
Sound:Mono
Languages:French
Subtitles:English
Features:History of a Film - doc, trailer, commentary
Luis Buñuel  ...  (Director)
Luis Buñuel, Joseph Kessel  ...  (Writer)
 
Catherine Deneuve  ...  Séverine Serizy
Jean Sorel  ...  Pierre Serizy
Michel Piccoli  ...  Henri Husson
Geneviève Page  ...  Madame Anais
Pierre Clémenti  ...  Marcel
Françoise Fabian  ...  Charlotte
Macha Méril  ...  Renee
Muni  ...  Pallas
Maria Latour  ...  Mathilde
Michel Charrel  ...  Footman
Iska Khan  ...  Asian client
Bernard Musson  ...  Majordomo
Marcel Charvey  ...  Prof. Henri
François Maistre  ...  L'ensignant
Francisco Rabal  ...  Hyppolite
Summary: Belle de Jour dramatizes the collision between depravity and elegance, one of the favorite themes of director Luis Buñuel. Catherine Deneuve stars as a wealthy but bored newlywed, eager to taste life to the fullest. She seemingly gets her wish early in the film when she is kidnapped, tied to a tree, and gang-raped. It turns out that this is only a daydream, but her subsequent visits to a neighboring brothel, where she offers her services, certainly seem to be real. This illusion/reality dichotomy extends to the final scenes, in which we are offered two possible endings. Thanks to a question of copyright and ownership, Belle de Jour disappeared from view shortly after its 1967 release, not even resurfacing on videotape. When it was reissued theatrically in 1994, many critics placed the perplexing but mesmerizing film on their lists of that year's best films.