Bored Paris housewife Séverine Serizy (Catherine Deneuve) who on an eccentric erotic whim begins working in a brothel run by the mysterious Madame Anais (Geneviève Page). From there she journeys into a surreal sexual word of pain, lust and erotic desire putting herself in a kind of jeopardy she previously never could have imagined.

CRITIQUE

I first saw Spanish director Luis Buñuel’s masterful Belle De Jour back during the 1990’s when director Martin Scorsese convinced Miramax to give the film a small theatrical re-release. Having never watched any of the filmmaker’s previous efforts I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect, only knowing going in that it starred Deneuve and that its pedigree bordered on legendary.

To say I was blown away is an understatement. There is something about the kinetic sensuality of the story that Buñuel is telling, something about the way the erotic layers slowly peel away, all of it adding together to take things to a place of tragic beauty that is as thrilling as it is destructive. This is the kind metaphorical stunner that can drive a person mad while at the same time making their body ache for more, and I thank my lucky stars that I was fortunate to take the time to see it those many years ago.

The movie is an elegant patchwork of emotional nuances, feminist in many ways and yet bizarrely old fashioned in numerous others. It’s a freakish journey into situations few would ever dream about but many might secretly ponder somewhere in the nether regions of their darkest fantasies. There is pain. There is degradation. Heck, every now and then there might actually be love. It a dangerous and intoxication blend of emotions and motivations, building to the type of shattering conclusion you just don’t see every day of the week.

One of my favorite scenes in Woody Alllen’s Midnight in Paris is when Owen Wilson’s character runs into Luis Buñuel for the second time at a dinner party and gives him the idea for The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie. The man looks at him in wonder, not remotely understanding what it is this strange little American is talking about.

I love this scene for many reasons, but the chief one is that, after watching Belle De Jour, after watching The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie, after watching so many of Buñuel’s other motion picture, I always get the feeling that the surrealist is making some things up as he goes along, not even sure himself how it is going to fit together or how elements are ultimately going to play themselves out. It’s like he was shaking his head in giddy disbelief as he assembled the pieces together, not understanding what was going on but confidently assured it would all work out in the end.

Belle De Jour works itself out and then some. Denueve’s performance is out of this world, fiercely and independently feminine, smoldering with an intensity that drips of the screen. Everything builds and builds until the viewer comes close to bursting at the seams, Buñuel layering everything together in as sensational a manner as longtime fans of the filmmaker have come to lovingly expect. The line between fantasy and reality is a tenuous strand of psychological chaos that bends to and fro like the wind blowing through a Parisian park. You can’t always seen what is going to happen next, can’t always know where the next blow is coming from, but the reactions are crucial, and how one relates to the unknown is the most perilous, destructive, at times uplifting, others heartbreaking, and in the end hopefully the most wondrous response of them all.

THE VIDEO

Belle De Jour is presented on a dual-layer 50GB Blu-ray MPEG-4 AVC Video with a 1080p 1.66:1 transfer. As stated in the included booklet: “This new high-definition digital transfer was created on a Spirit 2K Datacine from a 35mm interpositive. Thousands of instances of dirt, debris, scratches, splices, warps, jitter, and flicker were manually removed using MTI's DRS, while Image Systems' DVNR was used for small dirt, grain, and noise reduction.”

THE AUDIO

Belle De Jour comes to Blu-ray in French LPCM 1.0 Mono and includes optional English SDH subtitles. Again, from the included booklet: “The original monaural soundtrack was remastered at 24-bit from a 35mm print. Clicks, thumps, hiss, and hum were manually removed using Pro Tools HD. Crackle was attenuated using Audio Cube's integrated workstation.”

THE EXTRAS

Extras here include:

·         Audio Commentary featuring Princeton professor Michael Wood, author of the BFI Film Classics book Belle De Jour

·         Sexual-politics activist Susie Bright and film scholar Linda Williams (18:09)

·         Interview with screenwriter Jean-Claude Carrière (10:22)

·         Segment from the French television program Cinéma, featuring interviews with Jean-Claude Carrière and actress Catherine Deneuve (7:17)

·         Theatrical and Re-Release Trailer Gallery

A fantastic set of extras, made even more so thanks to Wood’s invigorating audio commentary track. It’s so chock full of information, so informative, listening to it once almost isn’t enough. Recorded in 2011, the darn thing is more or less great, and listening to it I achieved an even greater appreciation for the film (which is kind of saying something, since I think it’s a masterpiece) than I had beforehand.

The other two 2011 created extras, the interview pieces with Bright and Williams as well as the one with Carrière, are nearly as great, the latter especially, while the archival excerpt from Cinéma is a total invigorating joy. All-in-all, while there’s not a lot Criterion has outdone themselves here, this Blu-ray setting an early benchmark for one of 2012’s best and it’s only the third Tuesday in January.

The Blu-ray also comes with a 28-page Illustrated Booklet featuring an essay by critic Melissa Anderson and a 1970’s interview with director Luis Buñuel.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Belle De Jour is a perverse erotic masterpiece that explodes across the screen like little else. Criterion’s delicious new Blu-ray is a stunner in almost every way, and for any fan of classic international cinema it is an essential piece of history no hi-def library should be without.