Belle de Jour (DVD) ~ Catherine Deneuve (actor) Cover Art

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Belle de Jour (DVD)

Catherine Deneuve (actor), Jean Sorel (actor) and Luis Bu±uel (director)
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Synopsis

Catherine Deneuve was never more beautiful or more compelling than she is in this surrealistic film about one woman's foray into masochism and prostitution.
Parisian Séverine is married to a young doctor and loves him deeply, but not sensually. Her fantasy life is rich in sexually masochistic daydreams and when Séverine hears that a friend devotes part of her day to working in a bordello, it stirs a desire in Séverine to do the same. She joins a group of women in a bourgeois house and encounters a number of men in imaginative situations. Since Séverine is home every day by 5 o'clock, her husband knows nothing of her secret. However, the situation turns ugly when one of Séverine's steady customers, a handsome mod gangster, falls seriously in love with her and insists that she leave her husband.

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Review

Chicago Sun-Times, 07/25/1999, p.5, "...It is possibly the best-known erotic film of modern times, perhaps the best....The film is elegantly mounted..."

Entertainment Weekly, 06/30/1995, p.83, "...The times have finally caught up with Buñuel's brilliant deadpan comedy of erotic liberation..." -- Rating: A

USA Today, 12/29/1995, p.3D, "...This elegant dream-or-reality exercise was the biggest hit of Bunuel's half-century career....It's a sly and deliciously stylish parlor game..."

Sight and Sound, 06/01/2000, p.61, "...[The] film look as glossy and chic as a lifestyle-magazine photo-feature sprung to life..."

Total Film, 03/01/2007, p.124, 5 stars out of 5 -- "A cult hit upon release....The film itself remains fresh and vital..."

Premiere, 01/01/1996, p.111, "...[Buñuel's] last, great push as an artist..." - Recommended

Title Note

Theatrical release: April 10, 1968.

Unfortunate problems surrounding the film's copyright kept it hidden from the public eye for years following its original release. The spell was broken with a 1995 re-issue, which was presented by Martin Scorsese and Miramax Zoë.

BELLE DE JOUR was director Luis Buñuel's first color film.

Bunuel's film won the Golden Lion at the 1967 Venice Film Festival, as well as the New York Film Critics Circle award for Best Foreign Film in 1968.

Bunuel has a brief cameo as a cafe patron.

Catherine Deneuve worked with Bunuel three years later in the drama TRISTANA.

Distributor Note

Belle De Jour

Widely acclaimed as a motion picture masterpiece, BELLE DE JOUR is an erotically charged tale of deceit and desire! Beautiful Catherine Deneuve (INDOCHINE) stars as Severine, a perfect young housewife ... who leads a shocking double life. What her loving husband Pierre doesn't know is that by day she's a high-priced prostitute! But when the dangerous obsession of a customer forces her terrible secrets out into the open, Pierre must decide whether to reject her for what she has done ... or accept her for who she is! Now available on video for the first time, the stunning erotic intrigue of BELLE DE JOUR will both captivate and entertain!

Source: Buena Vista Home Entertainment.

Release Note

DVD Features:

Region 1
Keep Case
Anamorphic Widescreen
Audio:
Mono - French
Mono - English
Subtitles - English - Optional
Additional Release Material:
Production Interview - 1. Catherine Deneuve - Star
Audio Commentary - 1. Julie Jones - Bunuel Scholar
Trailers
Interactive Features:
Scene Access
Interactive Menus

Product Notes

An exquisite tale of self-discovery and tragic passion, Luis Bunuel's 1967 BELLE DE JOUR is one of the crowning achievements of the director's brilliant career. Famous for giddily manipulating audiences in order to make his point, Bunuel boldly blurs the line between fantasy and reality once again. It is this gleeful mischievousness that makes BELLE DE JOUR such a classic. Catherine Deneuve's performance reaffirms her status as one of world cinema's most electrifying actresses.

Based on Joseph Kessel's 1928 novel, the film follows a recently married French housewife, Severine (Deneuve), as she is overcome by a wash of uncontainable erotic passions. After a brutal gang rape turns out to be mere fantasy, Severine finds herself in a nearby brothel acting out a series of sexual acts. At night, she returns home to her loving husband, Pierre (Jean Sorel), who is unaware of the double life that she is leading--or is she, really?

Customer Reviews for "Belle de Jour (DVD)"
Average Customer Review
5 out of 5 stars ( [1 customer review] ) 

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Most Recent Customer Reviews
5 out of 5 stars Catherine Deneuve + Luis Bunuel Sizzling Surrealism, February 8, 2008
By Criterion Collector
Catherine Deneuve is a most demure dominatrix in this film about a bored housewife who spices up her life as a prostitute. The scenes with her clients could only have been created by Bunuel.

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