Belle De Jour (1967) (Vintage World Cinema, 50th Anniversary Edition, 2 DVDs)

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Screen icon Catherine Deneuve plays Severine, the glacially beautiful, sexually unfulfilled wife of a surgeon, whose blood runs icy with ennui until she takes a day-job in a brothel. There she meets a charismatic but sinister young gangster (Pierre Clementi) and ignites an obsession that will court peril. Bunuel uses diffused lighting, dark colours, and shadows throughout the film to temper the gravity and emotional impact of each uncomfortable scene. Left to our own imaginative devices, the result is a film that is highly unsettling, perverse, and inevitably tragic.