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“I grow irritated, nervous, very tense but never bored.’’
Catherine Deneuve, shown here reading Charlotte Bronte’s Shirley, turned 74 today, October 22nd. For those of us Dreaming of France, let’s take a look back at Deneuve in Belle de Jour from 1967, when the young actress, born in 1943 was a mere 24 years old.
The logline: A frigid young housewife decides to spend her midweek afternoons as a prostitute.
Deneuve was nominated for a BAFTA, while the acclaimed director Luis Bunuel, won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival, and Best Film from the French Syndicate of Cinema Critics. The film is considered his masterpiece.
About the book:
Belle de Jour, published in 1960, sounds like dangerous ground even today.The startling and groundbreaking novel that inspired Luis Bunuel's film by the same name, Belle de Jour remains as vital and controversial today as it was in its 1960 debut.
Severine Serizy is a wealthy and beautiful Parisian housewife. She loves her husband, but she cannot share physical intimacy with him, and her vivid sadomasochistic fantasies drive her to seek employment at a brothel. By day, she enacts her customers' wildest fantasies under the pseudonym “Belle de Jour”; in the evenings, she returns home to her chaste marriage and oblivious husband. Famous for its unflinching eroticism, Joseph Kessel’s novel continues to offer an eye-opening glance into a unique female psyche.
Frankly, I wonder why wealthy men like the Harvey Weinsteins of the world bother innocent women when there are prostitutes they can pay to do pretty much anything they want.
In the end it comes down to power though doesn’t it? How much more powerful to force a woman to give you a massage or let you masturbate while she watches you shower, rather than pay for services rendered.
Are you as done with these pigs as I am?
Parents, are you educating your sons about their own behavior when it comes to dealing with the opposite sex?
Posted for Dreaming of France via An Accidental Blog