– Belle de Jour is not pornographic. It’s a clinical, yet compassionate, study of a woman’s unspoken desires. It explores themes of shame, guilt, eroticism, and the masks people wear in society.
"You see, Minh," she whispered. "Every 'Belle de Jour' has a shadow self. But sometimes, that shadow just wants to be understood." Phim Belle De Jour 1967 Thuyet Minh
Séverine herself is a brilliant character study in repression. Played with icy perfection and subtle vulnerability by Catherine Deneuve, Séverine is the archetypal "frigid" bourgeois wife—beautiful, elegant, and emotionally detached from her loving but unexciting husband. Her inability to be intimate with Pierre is not a lack of desire, but a suppression of it. Her desire is not for gentle, marital love; it is for degradation, for control, for the transgressive. By choosing to work at Madame Anaïs’s house as "Belle de Jour," Séverine commodifies her secret self. She can indulge her forbidden fantasies under the guise of economic transaction, maintaining her daytime respectability while exploring her nighttime desires. This stark division between the pure, sterile white of her marital bedroom and the rich, dark, cluttered interiors of the brothel visually represents her split identity. – Belle de Jour is not pornographic
tại Liên hoan phim Venice năm 1967 và được coi là một trong những tác phẩm tiêu biểu nhất của chủ nghĩa siêu thực trong điện ảnh. "You see, Minh," she whispered