Classics: Belle De Jour

The story follows Séverine Serizy (a courageous performance by Catherine Deneuve), a Parisian housewife whose porcelain perfection hides a cracked interior. Séverine begins secretly spending her afternoons in a brothel, where she indulges her sexual desires. Buñuel blends fantasy and reality in this explosion of cinematic transgression, appealing to both the characters’ and the viewer’s desires.

The film offers a gently absurdist critique of the social mores and class divisions of the 1960s.