Belle
De Jour, made in 1967, is a film from Luis Bunuel, a director
who specialized in surrealism. The plot is supposed to be
about a woman, who is unaffectionate toward her husband, and
who suddenly decides to work at a brothel during the day.
We
get a glimpse of some rather bizarre dreams of the main character,
Severine (Catherine Deneuve). At the beginning, she dreams
that she is in a carriage with her husband, and after having
rejected his passionate pleas, the husband orders the carriage
to be stopped, and for the riders to tie her up and whip her
in a sort of spontaneous S&M act. It is a rather unsettling
thing to witness for the first time, because of the casual
attitude of the director. For one thing, it's a lengthy scene,
two or three minutes of it being taken up with quiet shots
of the carriage riding through the French countryside as the
credits silently flash on the screen. And there is nothing
in the scene to suggest that this is even a dream until the
next shot when she talks to her husband in bed that she just
happened to have had a dream in which the carriage was involved.
The
fact she is willing to deal with such unpredictable characters
from her dreams in her real life later on in the brothel is
a sign Severine can only enjoy sex if there is some threat
of danger. But then we also get some other strange moments
besides, dreams and otherwise, that seem to exist only so
the director can exercise his talent of blasphemy toward all
aspects of society, from the church and state to the upper-class,
which is of course what he is famous for. The most amusing
of these scenes is one where a customer gets off on pretending
to be an inept servant to the queen and who needs to be punished.
And the final portion of the film certainly will not make
sense for a person who demands a somewhat sane and easily
explainable ending.
I
actually read in Showcase Television's notice board that Bunuel`s
films are like Monty Python. I somehow doubt that to be the
case, since Python is attempting to get many laughs from their
surreal sketches. Bunuel doesn't even attempt to force a laugh
out of the audience. Everything is played utterly straight,
and the viewer will have to decide whether it's funny or just
insane. But the utter confidence of the director in pulling
off this odd concoction is certainly a reason to see this
film.
David
Macdonald
David
Macdonald's Movie Reviews
|