Belle de Jour »

Michael Wood, Chair of the English department at Princeton University, is author of America in the Movies (Columbia University Press, 1989), as well as books on Nabokov and Stendhal.

Séverine (Catherine Deneuve) is a listless haute bourgeoise wife with a secret afternoon life of prostitution. Her life twists repression and guilt together with uninhibited behavior, strangled libido with its liberated counterpart. Luis Buñuel's Belle de Jour (1967) inaugurates the extraordinary late phase of his work. The film shimmers with reflections on truth, fiction, and fantasy, in addition to caustic social insight, as it tells the story of a woman clearing her mind—perhaps—of its ghosts.

About the Author:
Michael Wood, Chair of the English department at Princeton University, is author of America in the Movies as well as books on Nabokov and Stendhal.