(1967, Beauty of the Day; French) A young couple are in a carriage that comes to a stop in an autumn lane beside a forest when the blonde woman refuses the handsome man's affection; he orders the coachmen to assist him in extracting the woman forcefully, gagging her, binding her hands, ripping away her clothes, whipping her, and before he departs, leaving her to them. A fantasy of Séverine Serizy (Catherine Deneuve) lying in her bed, again gently refusing her husband Pierre (Jean Sorel) admission to her bed.

In brief flashbacks Séverine appears as a child being abused by an adult; in church she refuses to take a wafer from the priest during communion.

Shortly after on a skiing holiday, celebrating their first wedding anniversary (still unconsummated), they share a table with Henri Husson (Michel Piccoli), a man with too much time and money, obsessed with young women, and his girlfriend Renée. Pierre thinks Henri's "interesting"; Séverine finds him "strange." In a cab with Renée, Séverine learns that a mutual acquaintance Henriette works in a whorehouse. At home Séverine asks her husband, a doctor, if he'd ever frequented a house of ill-repute before their marriage: "not often."

Overhearing Henri mentioning an address of a house of prostitution, she goes to see for herself, introducing herself to Madame Anais (Geneviève Page): she agrees to work only afternoons, taking the name Belle de Jour; fees are split 50/50. Two other women, Charlotte and Mathilda, share the duties of delighting clients. Her first customer, a loyal patron, Mr Adolphe, a fun-loving millionaire, is fat, short, and ugly.

A week passes before she goes back, told she must be serious and reliable if she's to be readmitted. Her next client is an academic, a famous gynecologist, who dismisses her when she fails to role play with him; Madame Anais has her watch through a peep hole to see how Charlotte acts out being a stern duchess to the professor's misbehaving sycophant in need of punishment: "How can anyone sink so low?" A large Asian man finds satisfaction in her arms.

Apparently attempting subconsciously to resolve her passionate fantasies with her disturbing childhood memories, Séverine engages in part-time prostitution as a means to a healthy, amorous relationship with her husband. At an outdoor café she accepts a proposition from a duke to lie in a coffin scantily clad in a dark, see-through cloak while he grieves over her. In their bedroom, she gets into bed with Pierre: "I'm not afraid anymore."

Back at her afternoon job, a pair of gangsters, Hippolyte and his young friend Marcel (Pierre Clémenti), ask for all three girls; Marcel, a scary character with steel teeth, asks for Belle de Jour for himself. Séverine had declined a cigarette when she first met Madame Anais; now she smokes. Pierre complains of feeling at a distance from Séverine; she says she feels closer to him than ever. Marcel gets anxious when Belle de Jour is away for a few days.

Finally feeling happier with Séverine, Pierre, after saying he's looking forward to having a child, spots a wheelchair as if sensing a premonition.

When Henri visits Madame Anais's house, he also chooses Séverine - who threatens to scream and jump out the window if he touches her while also explaining, "I can't live without it" - telling her that he was attracted to her for her "virtue," promising not to reveal her secret to Pierre; afterward she leaves Madame Anais. In another fantasy, she imagines a pistol duel between Pierre and Henri.

With Hippolyte's help, Marcel discovers Séverine's residence where he picks up a photograph of Pierre, saying to her: "He is the obstacle."

Spanish auteur Luis Bunuel co-wrote and directed this movie mixture of fantasy and reality in which Séverine appears to prefer an idyllic, celibate life with Pierre divorced from her erotic escapism.

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Copyright © 2008 Patrick Ivers. All rights reserved.
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