Tag: Michel Piccoli

Rapid Response: Belle de Jour

Belle de Jour is one of the sexiest, yet also most curious and thought provoking movies about sex, romance, fetishes and everything in between.

You’re in a room debasing yourself, embracing your wild, animal nature and your behavior is completely out of your control. And somehow, you can’t bring yourself to leave, no matter how much it all hurts.

That plot synopsis usually describes Luis Bunuel’s masterpiece “The Exterminating Angel,” but it also fits one of his later gems, “Belle de Jour.” In it, a woman named Severine (Catherine Deneuve) finds herself taking a job at a brothel and assuming the name Belle de Jour after finally being fed up with her unexciting marriage. It is one of the sexiest, yet also most curious and thought provoking movies about sex, romance, fetishes and everything in between. Those nuances within “Belle de Jour” are what make it such a classic; lots of movies have played on the outliers of love, but Bunuel digs deep into that unheard of middle ground.

The film’s curiosity builds from the first scene, in which Severine imagines a carriage ride in the forest with her husband Pierre (Jean Sorel). Once out of earshot of their mansion, Pierre strips off her clothes and orders the drivers to whip her naked back, then rape her. It’s that masochistic urge that moves her, despite her reluctance, to the brothel. Only under pressure and stress can she perform, despite knowing how much it hurts. Continue reading “Rapid Response: Belle de Jour”

We Have a Pope

Maybe it’s my cliché mind tinkering away, but I would bet “We Have a Pope” would be a lot funnier and even more insightful if the Cardinal in question was actually Woody Allen. This satire however starts with an interesting premise that somehow finds a way to be very thin and flimsy.

Nanni Moretti’s film starts with the death of the current Pope and the election of a new one. As you may know, the Cardinals are secluded until they can make a decision. There’s you’re movie right there. Take us inside a room that we’ll never enter and stay put. What does happen however is that the out-of-the-blue candidate Melville (Michel Piccoli) is selected, but moments before he is intended to give a blessing to the world, he gets cold feet.

Now this is understandable. To be chosen by God and given stature, power and a new identity would be overwhelming for anyone, least of all someone brought up in church to be humble. And for Melville, there’s got to be a hint of peer pressure there too. He seeks help from a psychologist (Moretti) and yet is unable to find real clarity because the nature of his new identity and the church’s seclusion policies renders him isolated. He finds his only option is to run off and rediscover himself on his own.

But “We Have a Pope” is more interested in a broad satire of the church. It seems content in showing these harmless old men merely being cute, talking about their cell phones, playing cards and holding a volleyball tournament. It provides them with nothing interesting or even spiritual to say, and their montages of frivolity are handled in dainty, stately ways that only provide miniature grace notes of comedy.

In restricting the focus to just Melville and including the Cardinals as comic relief, the movie is about how this one character deals with pressure. But it’s about nothing more broadly, not religion and not even humanity.

The film’s crushing, sanctimonious ending is ultimately confusing if not ambiguous. Not only are we left with no pope, we’re left with no understanding of how tough, or in this case how silly, it is to be one.

2 stars