Belle de Jour

A new review from The Movie Snob

Belle de Jour (C). This foreign film from 1967 is now is re-release at a local arthouse theater. The beautiful Catherine Deneuve (the Nicole Kidman of her time?) stars as Severine, a young woman recently married to a handsome doctor. All is not well with the newlyweds, however. Severine is apparently frigid towards her husband but simultaneously indulges in rather lurid daydreams (vividly shown to the moviegoer). When she chances to hear about an upscale brothel in downtown Paris, she hesitantly goes there and hesitantly takes a day job as a prostitute. She soon grows to love her work, but things take a dark turn when one of her customers, a hideous gangster, becomes obsessed with her. A very strange movie in which it is sometimes unclear what is real and what is happening only in Severine's head. Not very explicit by today's standards, but still disturbing in places. View with caution.