2006 NYFF-BELLE TOUJOURS

BELLE TOUJOURS

Ricardo Trepa as the Barman and Michel
Piccoli as Henri Husson in Belle Toujours
Directed by Manuel de Oliveira, France

© 2006 Eigentum des jeweiligen Studios /
Vertriebes

              In his nineties, Manuel de Oliveira is one of the oldest working film directors in
      cinema history. For his latest effort, he has made what he terms is an "homage" to
      the great Luis Buñuel and his frequent collaborator, screenwriter Jean-Claude
      Carrière. Riffing on the 1967 erotic drama BELLE DE JOUR, de Oliveira has taken
      a supporting character -- Michel Piccoli's venal Henri Husson -- and moved him
      center stage in BELLE TOUJOURS. For those unfamiliar with the original, or who
      may have forgotten, Husson was the friend of a doctor whose wife (portrayed by
      Catherine Denueve) was something of a masochist and who ended up passing
      her days working in a high-class brothel in Paris. Husson would overtly make his
      interest in the wife known, until he discovered her at the brothel. She agreed to
      sleep with him, but he rejected her because she had lost her allure. At the end
      of the original film, he paid a visit to the doctor, now an invalid after an accident,
      and spoke to him. The audience was left to decide what, if anything, he revealed
      about the wife's extra-marital activities.

              Set in the present, nearly 40 years after the events of the original film,
      BELLE TOUJOURS opens with Husson at the symphony and spying Séverine
      (now played by Bulle Ogier; Deneuve reportedly turned down the opportunity to
      revisit the character). He attempts to catch up to her, but she is aware
      he is following her and manages to evade him. He enters a bar she has just left
      and strikes up a conversation with the bartender, trying to suss out information.
      It soon becomes clear that de Oliveira is not out to rekindle the sex and sadism
      of the original, but to explore the effects that time has on memory and desire.

              Eventually, Husson and Séverine meet on a Parisian street and she
       reluctantly agrees to meet him for dinner -- on the condition that he reveal
       to her what he told her husband. At the meal, Séverine constantly points out
       that she is not the woman she once was (which carries double meaning given
       the fact she IS a different actress). Husson, for his part, doesn't seem to notice
       or care. He is caught up in his own fantasy based on their youth.

                BELLE TOUJOURS is a minor key companion piece to the original film
        and would make a great double feature evening either in theaters or at home
        on DVD.


                                        Rating:                    B -
                                        Running time:         68 mins.