Here is my review and interpretation of
Belle De Jour. Please feel free to critique it if I made an error. I also posted it under my Blu-ray reviews.
[Show spoiler]Many may argue that Belle de Jour ("Beauty Of The Day") is an ordinary drama about a woman who decides to spend her early afternoons working as a prostitute at a Paris brothel. However, there are many elements and symbols throughout this film that allude to it being a psychological thriller.
The beautiful and talented Catherine Deneuve stars as Séverine Serizy, a sexually frustrated housewife. The relationship between Séverine and her husband Pierre is very awkward. While the two love each other, they both come and go as they please, they sleep in separate beds, and they do not have sex with one another. It appears that Séverine has difficulties with sex due to a trauma experienced earlier in her life. As a result, she is trying to come to grips with herself. While in a taxi with her friend Renée one day, Séverine learns that their mutual friend, Henrietta, now works at a brothel. The idea of working in one of these places is planted in Séverine's mind and she decides to visit a nearby brothel for herself. After meeting with the owner, Madame Anaïs, Séverine decides to take up prostitution as a side job during the early afternoons. The results of this decision ultimately have both positive and negative effects on Séverine and her husband's relationship.
The most important part of this film, in my opinion, is the symbols that are present throughout it. There are four specific symbols that I would like to discuss. They are the daydreams and sexual fantasies, religion, animals, and the brothel.
The first symbol that I would like to discuss are the daydreams and sexual fantasies that Séverine has throughout the film. Séverine is often plagued by sadomasochistic fantasies, in which she is taken to an isolated location, tied up, and humiliated. Many believe that this is due to the sexual abuse that she had experienced as a child by her father. These fantasies, just like the abuse, have haunted her for a good portion of her life. More specifically, they are the reason that she cannot be sexually aroused with her husband, Pierre. The second symbol that I would like to discuss is religion. When an individual thinks of religion, they often think of it being holy, pure, and sacred. Before entering the brothel, Séverine has a daydream of a time in her life when she was receiving Holy Communion at church. When a person receives communion, it's symbolically the closest that a person can be with God because they are receiving the body and blood of Christ. By taking on this role of a prostitute, Séverine is essentially going against the doctrines of the church and going against what it means to be holy and pure. Another instance with religion occurs when Séverine has a daydream that she is in in the park and she is approached by an older man. The older man asks her if she is willing to go to his house with him so that she can help him with reenacting a religious ceremony. It turns out that Séverine is to play the role of the older man's daughter at her funeral. The older man pours out all of his guilt for sexually abusing his daughter when she was younger and he feels responsible for her life playing out the way that it did. This can be interpreted as Séverine's conscious playing out her own repressed memories. Séverine holds a lot of frustration for the abuse that she had experienced as a child. I feel that she has always been longing for an apology from her father (as the older man did with his daughter). Because of her father, her innocence and purity died at such an early age. She also took on this role of a prostitute to help her deal with some of her internal stressors. The third symbol that I would like to discuss is the animals. During one of Séverine's sexual fantasies, Pierre and his friend, Henri Husson are working in a field. They are tending to some livestock and also working with what appears to be mud. Pierre asks Henri if the animals have any names, to which he explains that they do. The scene shifts to Séverine who is tied up from a tree branch. Pierre and Henri begin to argue with her and they begin to degrade her. They throw the mud at her until she is almost black and they call her a variety of names, such as "harlot", "*****", "slut", etc. The irony in this is that they treated the livestock with a lot more respect than they treated Séverine. They humanized these animals by giving them names, but they degraded Séverine and treated her like an animal. Another instance involving animals is with the horse and carriage. For a large portion of the film, whenever the horse and carriage is present, the viewer is able to recognize that they are in one of Severine's daydreams and sexual fantasies. The fourth symbol that I would like to discuss is the brothel. By taking on the position of a prostitute at the Paris brothel, Séverine is able to escape from the pressures of her everyday life and become somebody else. As Séverine, she is a sexually frustrated housewife who is dealing with her own past issues. However, as "Belle de Jour", she is able to unleash all of her sexual fantasies with the clients that she comes across on a day-to-day basis. As a result of this job, Séverine is able to open up more with Pierre and they are finally able to have a somewhat healthy and normal relationship.
The irony of the entire film is that by taking on a degrading job, such as prostitution, Séverine is able to fix her relationship with her husband, Pierre, for the better. Many women who take on these roles have marital troubles because they often feel guilty for sleeping with numerous men or because their husband finds out what they have been doing. Since Pierre does not know what his wife is doing, he just assumes that she is getting better - and she is. Through prostitution, she is able to live life again. She makes friends, she interacts with clients on a day-to-day basis, and she is ultimately able to get to the root of her problems.
The Criterion Collection once again comes through with another great release. The video quality and the audio quality on Belle De Jour are top-notch. If you did not know better, you would think that this is a 1980s film and not a 1967 film. The film also has a decent amount of extras, thus making it a must own in any collection.
This was the first foreign film that I have ever watched and it will definitely not be the last. I was a little hesitant of watching it at first because I felt that the subtitles would have turned me off, made me confused, and not keep my interest. However, I was first wrong. As a result of watching this film, I have a new appreciation and outlook for this film style and I could not recommend it highly enough.
10/10
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