Belle de Jour, Luis Buñuel, 1967 (Beauty by Day) A film about the sexual fantasies of upper-middle-class men and women. The heroine (Catherine Deneuve) is a dissatisfied wife who sells herself during the day when her husband is working. All kinds of customers, wandering between fantasy and reality... Buñuel's way of dealing with fantasy is an extremely realistic way without filters and special effects. Real scenes and fantasy scenes are seamlessly integrated or mixed (especially the ending female The scene where the Lord's husband "resurrected" from the silence in front of her) even made me feel better than the Mulholland Drive I just watched a few days ago... Of course, Buñuel is purely dealing with fantasies and implementing the so-called automatisme Psychique, kind of feels like a surreal "boilerplate", a kind of remake of "An Andalusian Dog" 40 years later. Later, the Lynchs learned to understand this routine and began to add other private goods to it. Catherine Deneuve is amazing, and I can see a bit of resistance in this completely objectified character setting; but I think the best thing is Michel Piccoli, a Tanghuang character, avec son habituelle extravagance tellement sincère. It is said that the film was very good at the box office. Buñuel himself said that it was not because he made it well but because the film was too porno and had to be good at the box office. Today is the first day that Cinémathèque is open after confinement, and the large screening hall (under the new rule of sitting apart) is almost full. I don't know if everyone came to see Buñuel's model show, or to see Deneuve's body, or to mourn Piccoli, or just to join in the fun of the first day. Looking at the situation of the epidemic, one day the movie theaters will have to be closed again. Ugh?
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