One Hundred Sex Scenes That Changed Cinema by Neil Fulwood

Author:Neil Fulwood
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Publisher: Pavilion Books
Published: 2014-10-30T04:00:00+00:00

Belle de Jour (1967) is both an update and a role-reversal of an already controversial piece of work. The key to the film is its heroine’s name: Séverine. It is a feminization of Severin, the protagonist of Leopold von Sacher-Masoch’s Venus in Furs1 who gains sexual satisfaction from being whipped, beaten and humiliated. The term masochism is derived from Sacher-Masoch’s name as sadism is from the Marquis de Sade’s.

A stylish satire on the hypocrisy and degeneracy of the middle classes, Buñuel’s film also blurs the lines between reality and fantasy, and employs its moments of masochism to this end. Séverine (Catherine Deneuve) is the bored trophy wife of society doctor Pierre Serizy (Jean Sorel), for whom she feels affection but not attraction. After a year, their marriage remains unconsummated. Pierre’s friend, the lecherous Henri Husson (Michel Piccoli), propositions her with tedious regularity. Ennui permeates her life.

For no better reason than curiosity, she takes a position at a brothel; she is given the name Belle de Jour after insisting she can only work afternoons. Clients include the owner of a chocolate factory whose endearments are as cloying as his product, but who demonstrates a distinctly unsaccharine attitude towards Séverine as soon as they are left alone together; a Chinaman with an ornamental box, the (unrevealed) contents of which repel some of the girls and fascinate others; and a gangster with gold teeth who becomes obsessed with Séverine.

Séverine also encounters two men who like role-play. One is a pitiful businessman who insists on being whipped for some imagined transgression while pretending his dominatrix is a noblewoman. More disturbing is the Duke who insists she dress in a winding sheet and lie in a coffin. He places asphodels on her unmoving body and delivers a eulogy during which he refers to her as his ‘daughter’. It is hinted that he completes this ritual by crawling beneath the coffin and abusing himself.

But are the fantasies of these individuals any less questionable than those of Séverine herself, fantasies that lead her to the brothel in the first place? The very first scene in the film establishes Séverine’s mindset. She is driving along a country road in a landau with her husband, Pierre, when he suddenly complains about her frigidity. Ordering the horsemen to stop, he further instructs them to haul her out of the carriage. He watches as they bind her hands and tie her to a tree. He rips her blouse, exposing her back, and tells them to flog her. This done (she seems to enjoy it), he gives them leave to take their pleasure with her. The scene immediately cuts to the Serizys’ bedroom, Séverine sitting demurely in bed, nightgown buttoned to her neck, refusing Pierre’s attentions.

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