July 2
July 3
July 4
Diminished Capacity
Gonzo: The Life and Work of Hunter S. Thompson
We are Together
July 9
July 11
August
Eight Miles High
Journey to the Center of the Earth
Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired
July 18
A Very British Gangster
Before I Forget
Felon
Lou Reed's Berlin
Transsiberian
July 22
July 23
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.
Posted by Jeffrey Wells on December 31, 2006 at 02:16 PM
Posted by Hallick
at December 31, 2006 02:51 PM
Posted by T. S. Idiot
at December 31, 2006 03:42 PM
comment #3
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!
Posted by Mgmax
at December 31, 2006 05:26 PM
Posted by bellepoitrine
at December 31, 2006 07:39 PM
Posted by jeffmcm
at December 31, 2006 08:24 PM
Posted by Ju-osh
at January 1, 2007 08:23 PM
Thanks for signing in, . Now you can comment. (sign out)
(If you haven't left a comment here before, you may need to be approved by the site owner before your comment will appear. Until then, it won't appear on the entry. Thanks for waiting.)