Greer on feisy broads

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Luis Bunuel's Belle de Jour (1967) "has a reputation for being one of the sexiest films ever made, simply because Catherine Deneuve behaves throughout like a pre-adolescent girl. Through the prism of the 21st century, the film seems oddly contrived; what is now a cliche -- the child who, subjected to the sexual advances of an adult, then becomes a frigid woman who is only turned on by squalor -- is coyly exploited as a series of fetishistic images that juxtapose her fantasy life with her actual life.

"As Severine Serizy, Deneuve moves through the imagery of what are meant to be her own fantasies like a sleepwalker. By her own account, Bunuel could not relate to her at all and never told her what he wanted. Unconsciously, she gave him what he wanted, which was as little as possible. The fantasies were his, after all.

"The decision to have her dressed by Yves Saint-Laurent adds a bizarre dimension to the nonexistent plot; we seem to be living within the pages of a glossy magazine, with product placement everywhere. Everywhere Severine goes, she is conspicuous by her catwalk presence, from her shiny patent leather pumps to the helmet that holds in her mane of Barbie-doll hair.

"The sex scenes in the brothel consist of her stripping to the full armour of suspender-belt, knickers, stockings and padded brassiere, and allowing ugly men to kiss her. In one extraordinarily unsexy sequence, she is required to process through the rooms of a ducal chateau dressed in nothing but a cloak of black georgette and a crown of white roses. She trots ahead of the camera like a lamb to the slaughter. She should have used a body double; it is typical of her passive obedience that she didn't.

"Lauren Bacall would never have done that for anyone, would never have stripped and had them shoot her bare arse from the back as she trotted through take after take. The Hawksian woman would have decked any man who asked her." -- from a thoughtful, somewhat revisionist Guardian piece by Germaine Greer, the subject being the decline of the feisty broad.

comment #1

Hallick says ...

"from a thoughtful, somewhat revisionist Guardian piece by Germaine Greer, the subject being the decline of the feisty broad."

They don't ALL have to be, and never will all be, "feisty broads". Vive la difference.

comment #2

T. S. Idiot says ...

I love Bunuel, especially Exterminating Angel and the films of the 70s, but have always found, on three or four viewings, Belle to be overrated. Interesting but dramatically tepid. I agree with Gerry about feisty broads. They're the best.

comment #3

Mgmax says ...

I admire Belle de Jour for Bunuel's brilliant hat trick at finding a way to make a chicly commercial Bunuel film that is still, unmistakably, a Bunuel film.

And I've always thought the key to Deneuve's performance is that Bunuel loved Buster Keaton so much.

Most of Greer's insights strike me as the butt-obvious sort-- the glossily banal, advertising-like visuals stand in contrast to the perverse content? By george I think you're on to something!

comment #4

bellepoitrine says ...

Don't kid yourself. Bacall would have done it if Bunuel had paid her enough.

comment #5

jeffmcm says ...

Stop the presses! Greer is tolling the death knell of the 'feisty broad' and it only took her forty years to figure it out!

comment #6

Ju-osh says ...

Greer only touches upon it briefly here, but for a really detailed look at how Bacall was 'created' by Hawks, check out David Thomson's BFI Film Classics book on The Big Sleep. You'll never look at homegirl the same way again (and the rest of the book is fun, too!).

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