Belle toujours (2006)

Director:

Manoel de Oliveira

Writers:

Manoel de Oliveira (written by)
Joseph Kessel (inspired by the book)

Release Date:

8 September 2006 (Italy)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

38 years after the original story, Henri Husson thinks he sees Séverine one night in a concert. He follows her and makes her face her past and with sadism takes a slow and painful revenge on her.

Plot Keywords:

Dinner Scene | Revenge | Classical Music | Eiffel Tower Paris | Music

Awards:

1 nomination

Cast

Michel Piccoli	...	Henri Husson
Bulle Ogier	...	Séverine Serizy
Ricardo Trêpa	...	Barman
Leonor Baldaque	...	Young Prostitute
Júlia Buisel	...	Old Prostitute
Lawrence Foster	...	Himself - Direction musicale

Runtime:

68 min

Country:

Portugal | France

Language:

French

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Italy:T | Portugal:M/12 | Argentina:13

Filming Locations:

France

Company:

Filbox Produções

Trivia:

Director Manoel de Oliveira made this film at the age of 97.

Movie Connections:

Follows Belle de jour (1967)

Soundtrack:

Symphonie n° 8 en sol majeur - Op. 88 (mouvements 2 et 3)

Some memories shall stay buried forever.

It's always nice to fallow the evolution of some characters through the years from films to films. You have the impression to see old friends again after a long separation. But there, the separation was really very long, and years go by, everyone got old and tired. All you got at the end of this meeting is the sad feeling that 38 years after having lost contact, it was quite useless to meet again, for you don't have anything to say to this characters anymore.

In 1967, Louis Bunuel filmed a terrible story of a perverse woman beautifully played by Catherine Deneuve. 38 years later, Michel Piccoli, who played in the original movie a friend of Deneuve's husband, assists to a endlessly concert of Dvorak, where he sees the ex-Bunuel character. In old time's sake, he'll want to invite her to diner, but she doesn't really have a nice souvenir of their relationship. And she claims that time changes her a lot : and indeed, Severine, formerly known as Caterine Deneuve, has now become Bulle Augier (but she's quite credible in old-young Deneuve).

It's really sad to see that in this false sequel the trouble, the wit and the intelligence of Bunuel are replaced by a boring feeling and an excessive slow motion impression. Beside a tasteful mute diner scene between the two mythical characters, even the most passionate cinephile will have trouble to find anything consistent in this repetitive style exercise. He'll just be surprised in front of this plain interpretation of "Belle de jour", and be amazed by the incoherences. Henry Husson bought for example Severine the strange box a mysterious Asian character brought when he met her years ago : but how can he know this kind of details, when he was merely an external observer of her life ?

No wonder why Catherine Deneuve run away in front of this inconsistence and quite lazy movie. But man can wonder why the critics praise this movie when "Belle Toujours" is obviously a minor piece in Oliveira's impressive filmography.