Belle de Jour . Tucson Weekly . 11-30-95

Belle de Jour

DIRECTED BY: Luis Bunuel

REVIEWED: 11-30-95

Catherine Deneuve is fascinatingly vacant in this re-release of Lois Buñuel's 1967 portrait of a woman's erotic imagination. The film was racy in its time and it's racy now--in fact, since the clothes are back in style it hardly seems dated. Deneuve is the bored wife of a handsome doctor who doesn't turn her on. She lies chastely beside him, having elaborate degradation fantasies, which she tries to live out by secretly working as a prostitute. Fantasies, dreams and reality intertwine as Deneuve glides through it all on cruise control, her make-up perfect, her icy surface concealing a knot of contradictions. The film, like Deneuve, has a formal coolness that masks an active imagination. Here as in many of his films, Buñuel gives equal time to dream and waking life. But for all its naughty pleasures, Belle de Jour is only a teaser compared to Buñuel's surrealistic classics like The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie.

--Stacey Richter

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