Belle de Jour
昼顔
Storyline
The whole story, ending included.
A surgeon's wife works afternoons in a brothel; the Japanese drama 昼顔 borrowed the title and the idea.
Séverine Serizy is young, beautiful and married to Pierre, a doctor. She loves him, but she cannot bring herself to sleep with him. Her sexual life is confined to elaborate fantasies of domination and bondage, and Pierre, frustrated, respects her wishes. At a ski resort they meet two friends, Renée and Henri Husson, an older man whose manner and way of looking at her Séverine dislikes. Back in Paris she learns from Renée that a woman they know now works in a brothel. Husson mentions an elegant brothel and its address, and confesses his desire for Séverine, which she rejects.
Troubled by memories from her childhood, among them one of a man who appears to abuse her, she goes to the house. Its owner, Madame Anaïs, names her Belle de Jour, and that first afternoon, reluctantly, Séverine takes a client. She stays away a week, then comes back and begins working every day from two until five, returning to her unsuspecting husband in the evening. At home, things improve: she begins to sleep with Pierre.
She falls for Marcel, a young criminal who offers her the excitement of her fantasies. Husson visits the brothel, finds her there, promises not to tell Pierre and declines her, saying he no longer desires her. As Marcel grows jealous and demanding, Séverine decides to leave the house. One of Marcel's associates follows her home, and Marcel comes to her flat and threatens to tell her husband. She begs him to go, and he leaves, calling Pierre 'the obstacle'. He waits in the street for Pierre and tries to kill him, and is himself killed by the police as he flees. Pierre survives, blind and paralysed, in a wheelchair; the police find no motive. Séverine nurses him. Then Husson comes to tell Pierre the truth, and she does not stop him. Afterwards she finds Pierre in tears, unmoving. In the last moments, which may be another of her fantasies, Pierre rises from the wheelchair, pours himself a drink and talks with her about a holiday.
Starring
Catherine Deneuveas Séverine Serizy
A young wife who loves her husband but cannot sleep with him, and begins spending her afternoons in a brothel.
Séverine Serizy’s story
Séverine says she loves Pierre beyond pleasure: with him she cannot find it, only in fantasies of being bound and punished. Among the childhood memories that trouble her is one of a man who appears to abuse her. Husson gives her the address of an elegant brothel, and she goes. Madame Anaïs names her Belle de Jour. After a reluctant first afternoon she works there from two until five each day, and at home begins to sleep with Pierre. She falls for Marcel, a young criminal, and when he grows jealous she leaves. Marcel tries to kill Pierre and is killed by the police. She nurses her blind, paralysed husband until Husson tells him everything, and she does not stop him. Then, perhaps in another fantasy, Pierre stands up and talks of a holiday.
Jean Sorelas Pierre Serizy
Séverine's devoted husband, a doctor, who respects her distance and suspects nothing.
Pierre Serizy’s story
Pierre is a young doctor married to a wife he cannot reach in bed; frustrated, he waits. The change he notices in her is a happy one: at last she has begun to sleep with him. One evening Marcel waits for him in the street and tries to kill him, and is killed by the police as he flees. Pierre lives, blind, paralysed and in a wheelchair, and the police find no motive. Séverine nurses him. Then Husson, saying he wants to free Pierre from the gratitude he believes he owes his wife, goes into his room and tells him how she spent her afternoons. Afterwards Pierre sits unmoving, in tears. At the end, perhaps in another of her fantasies, he gets out of the wheelchair, pours himself a drink and talks with her about a holiday.
Michel Piccolias Henri Husson
An older friend of the couple who desires Séverine, tells her about the brothel and later finds her there.
Henri Husson’s story
At the ski resort Séverine dislikes the way Husson looks at her. In Paris he sends her roses, talks to her at the tennis courts about houses of pleasure, gives her the address of an elegant one and tells her he wants her; she turns him down. When he calls at the flat, she will not see him. After a long absence he visits the house again and finds her working there. He promises not to tell Pierre, and refuses her, saying that what he loved in her was her virtue. After Marcel's attack has left Pierre blind and paralysed, Husson comes back to tell Pierre the truth, to free him, he says, from the gratitude he feels he owes her. He offers to let Séverine listen, goes into Pierre's room, tells him everything, and leaves.
Geneviève Pageas Madame Anaïs
The owner of the elegant brothel, who takes Séverine on and names her Belle de Jour.
Pierre Clémentias Marcel
A young criminal among the clients, who excites Séverine and grows dangerously jealous.
Why it matters
Belle de Jour is about a woman whose desire does not fit the marriage she has, and it declines to explain her. Buñuel moves between Séverine's fantasies, her memories and her afternoons at the brothel without always marking which is which, and leaves open whether the last scenes are real. The film treats sex work, masochistic fantasy and a respectable wife's secret life as serious matters. It won the Golden Lion at Venice in 1967. Catherine Deneuve, then 22, said she felt more of her was shown than she had been told, and that at moments she felt totally used. In Japan, a television drama of the 2010s about a housewife's affair drew on the film and took its title. The question it leaves is whether Séverine's double life is a sickness, a liberation, or simply a truth about her that no one around her can bear to know.