The Oldest Profession
January 31, 2012
Catherine Deneuve’s porcelain perfection hides a cracked interior in one of the actress’s most iconic roles: Séverine, a Paris housewife who begins secretly spending her afternoon hours working in a bordello. This surreal and erotic late-sixties daydream from provocateur for the ages Luis Buñuel is an examination of desire and fetishistic pleasure (its characters’ and its viewers’), as well as a gently absurdist take on contemporary social mores and class divisions. Fantasy and reality commingle in this burst of cinematic transgression, which was one of Buñuel’s biggest hits.
| Séverine Serizy (Belle de jour) | Catherine Deneuve |
| Pierre Serizy | Jean Sorel |
| Henri Husson | Michel Piccoli |
| Madame Anaïs | Geneviéve Page |
| Marcel | Pierre Clémenti |
| Charlotte | Françoise Fabian |
| Renée | Macha Méril |
| Pallas | Muni |
| Mathilde | Maria Latour |
| Inspector | Claude Cerval |
| Footman | Michel Charrel |
| Hippolyte | Francisco Rabal |
| Duke | Georges Marchal |
| Monsieur Adolphe | Francis Blanche |
| Director | Luis Buñuel |
| From the novel by | Joseph Kessel |
| Adaptation and dialogue | Luis Buñuel and Jean-Claude Carrière |
| Director of photography | Sacha Vierny |
| Production designer | Robert Clavel |
| Editor | Louisette Hautecœur |
| Sound | René Longuet |
| Costumes | Hélène Nourry |
| Producer | Raymond Hakim and Robert Hakim |
By January 17, 2012
“I felt they showed more of me than they’d said they were going to,” Catherine Deneuve . . . Read more »
By January 17, 2012
“I felt they showed more of me than they’d said they were going to,” Catherine Deneuve . . . Read more »
January 26, 2012
“One of the great French films of the 1960s, Belle de jour is a masterful blend of fantasy and . . . Read more »
By January 17, 2012
“I felt they showed more of me than they’d said they were going to,” Catherine Deneuve . . . Read more »
“My favorite Bunuel film. I never thought that it would be in the criterion Collection.”