BELLE DE JOUR
100 MINUTES - COLOUR - 1.66.1 - FRANCE - 1967
DIRECTED BY LUIS BUÑUEL
STARRING CATHERINE DENEUVE, MICHEL PICCOLI, AND JEAN SOREL
NEW 4K RESTORATION
Catherine Deneuve’s porcelain perfection hides a cracked interior in one of the actress’s most iconic roles: Séverine, a Paris housewife who begins secretly spending her afternoon hours working in a bordello. This surreal and erotic late-sixties daydream from provocateur for the ages Luis Buñuel is an examination of desire and fetishistic pleasure (its characters’ and its viewers’), as well as a gently absurdist take on contemporary social mores and class divisions. Fantasy and reality commingle in this burst of cinematic transgression, which was one of Buñuel’s biggest hits.