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Belle toujours2007 Portugal / France Dir Manoel de Oliveira Cast Michel Piccoli, Bulle Ogier, Ricardo Trêpa IMDb |
I had been looking forward to this for so long, and what a disappointment it turns out to be. The quasi-sequel to Belle de jour doesn’t do for the original what, say, Wide Sargasso Sea does for Jane Eyre in terms of revisiting and reimagining it. It’s more like the cinematic equivalent of Cliffs Notes. Half the film is spent between Husson and a bartender in Socratic dialogue rehashing the events and motivations of Severine’s past; the other half shows the reunion of the two over an uncomfortable dinner Husson finally forces her into. The film is essentially two long conversations, in which every element of Severine’s psychology is laid on the table, first in his words and then in her own, in the most plain and facile terms imaginable, until all the joy of analyzing the original film is removed. But that is what this is: criticism brought to life. An interesting idea in theory, I suppose, but the possibilities the subject matter affords make this look like a painfully wasted opportunity. I can’t imagine someone who hasn’t seen Belle de jour being interested in this, and I can’t imagine someone who has seen Belle de jour finding this entirely satisfying, but still from any perspective there are qualities and moments in this that are beautiful: shots of Paris, of dimly lit hotel rooms, the occasionally successful wryly funny homage, and the lingering weight of the regret that comes with age. In the last five minutes it achieves something of what the rest of the film might have been, and finally has the good sense to leave one or two questions unanswered. A good film, but altogether a story of might-have-beens.
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