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Belle de jour



Catherine Deneuve’s porcelain perfection hides a cracked interior in one of the actress’s most iconic roles: Séverine, a Paris housewife who begins secretly spending her after­noon hours working in a bordello. This surreal and erotic late-sixties daydream from provocateur for the ages Luis Buñuel is an examination of desire and fetishistic pleasure (its characters’ and its viewers’), as well as a gently absurdist take on contemporary social mores and class divisions. Fantasy and reality commingle in this burst of cinematic transgression, which was one of Buñuel’s biggest hits.

Disc Features

- New high-definition digital restoration (with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition)
- Audio commentary featuring Michael Wood, author of the BFI Film Classics book Belle de jour
- New video piece featuring writer and sexual-politics activist Susie Bright and film scholar Linda Williams
- New interview with screenwriter Jean-Claude Carrière
- Segment from the French television program Cinéma, featuring interviews with Carrière and actress Catherine Deneuve
- Original and rerelease trailers
- New English subtitle translation
- PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by critic Melissa Anderson and a 1970s interview with director Luis Buñuel

DVD:
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Blu-ray:
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Definitely curious about this. I really dig the cover.

I'm kind of sad they couldn't wrangle the sequel too, but I'm glad in what we do have.

After the damage done by Studio Canal it's nice to have another Bunuel, although the optimum box is still a great bargain.

edit: apparently that box is OOP, or at least I can't find anyone selling it.

The Miramax DVD is horrendous. Nice that the U.S. will finally get a decent transfer.

Nice. OK, Criterion, now bring on "Tristana"! :-"

Murdoch wrote:apparently that box is OOP, or at least I can't find anyone selling it.

The Bunuel box seems OOP, but I've seen plenty in some UK stores (HMV and also the FOPP shop in Glasgow). Not an expensive box, moreover, at around £40.

Nothing is said about the subtitles, so perhaps they aren't an issue. I recall that on previous home video releases (perhaps on the LD?) someone had taken the liberty of italicizing certain titles and not others, apparently under the impression that it would be a good idea to tip audiences to which parts were "fantasy" and which were not. Hopefully, that practice has not been retained.

Criterion rather consistently seems to just italicize dialogue that is spoken by someone offscreen.

DVD Beaver comparison with the StudioCanal Blu-ray

Criterion wins again. The colors on their disc are much more vibrant than the colder, paler colors on the StudioCanal disc.

I already had the Optimum DVD (and therefore its extras), so this is a no-brainer for me.

I think I'll remain happy with my SC Blu-Ray -- which looks just fine in motion.

flyonthewall2983 wrote:Definitely curious about this. I really dig the cover.

Problem with the transfer: it's not in 1.66:1 as the cover text claims. Some idiot at Criterion (sorry but he/she deserves this in spades) has shorn the top and bottom of the frame to fit it in the 16x9 TV screen. Blecch.

Funny thing is they included the correct frame in brief quotes from the film sprinkled throughout the supplements. Apparently after the supplements have been prepared, someone got their paws on it and screwed it up.

I'm all upset over this because same thing exactly has been done to the recent gorgeous restoration of Has' Hourglass Sanatorium and Wajda's Wedding.

JanPB wrote:Problem with the transfer: it's not in 1.66:1 as the cover text claims. Some idiot at Criterion (sorry but he/she deserves this in spades) has shorn the top and bottom of the frame to fit it in the 16x9 TV screen. Blecch.

That's not what the Beaver grabs suggest. On the contrary, they show that the Criterion has more information on all four sides of the frame than the other DVD/BD releases. So are you saying that the disc was cropped after the Beaver's checkdisc was sent out?

JanPB wrote:I'm all upset over this because same thing exactly has been done to the recent gorgeous restoration of Has' Hourglass Sanatorium and Wajda's Wedding.

It can't be "the same thing exactly" in the case of Hourglass Sanatorium because the original is 2.35:1. Presumably you mean it's been cropped at the sides to fit a 16:9 frame?

The screenshots at Blu-Ray.com also show black bars on the sides. Unless both sites have conspiratorially altered their screenshots or Criterion modified the disc after reviews, it's definitely 1.66:1, not 1.78:1.

From what I noticed the aspect ratio actually pops between 1.66:1 and 1.78:1 a couple of times during the film. Not any distortion, it just "unmasks" at some scenes.

I'm pretty sure it's 1.66:1 the whole way through and when I was taking grabs I didn't notice anything out of the ordinary, though it's possible if it jumps infrequently between 1.66:1 and 1.78:1 I missed it while watching. But the whole film definitly isn't presented that way. I also think they used clips from a different master or source for the supplements because it does look to be more heavily cropped on the sides and there's a heavier amount of damage in those clips.

I just skimmed through my copy, and it sure is 1.66:1 the majority of the way through. If the aspect ratio changes it does so for a very short period. I might have mixed it up with some other movie I've watched the last week or so, because I can clearly remember pausing and rewinding just to make sure it happened.

I haven't gotten Belle de Jour yet but I have the same situation with Kiss Me Deadly also at 1:66. No black bars, the image fills the screen. I assumed that there may be some obscure tv setting I missed, but I couldn't find anything in the menus. 1:85 and 2:35 play correctly.

Have you checked the player settings? There should definitely be black bars at the sides of Kiss Me Deadly.

spocker wrote:I just skimmed through my copy, and it sure is 1.66:1 the majority of the way through. If the aspect ratio changes it does so for a very short period. I might have mixed it up with some other movie I've watched the last week or so, because I can clearly remember pausing and rewinding just to make sure it happened.

Watched this Saturday and I don't recall the film at any point turning to 1.78. I think I would have noticed!

Pretty good release overall, though the Susie Bright/Linda Williams piece reminded me too much of the Sex, Race & Class course I took my freshman year of college.

MichaelB wrote:Have you checked the player settings? There should definitely be black bars at the sides of Kiss Me Deadly.

Depending on the TV, overscan could potentially cover up those bars for 1.66:1 material. I'm sure this is less likely for modern widescreen HD televisions, but my ten-year-old rear projection one doesn't allow me to see black bars on anything between 1.66:1 and 1.85:1 (not that I'm happy about it, but the TV has held up so well over the past decade I'm not quite ready to put it out to pasture).

MichaelB wrote:Have you checked the player settings? There should definitely be black bars at the sides of Kiss Me Deadly.

I checked my blu-ray player aspect settings and all four offered had the same result. I fooled around with my tv settings some more but again no difference.

I searched through my collection for another 1:66 and found the standard disc of The Double Life of Veronique. Strangely enough the bars were there, proper ratio. I don't have any other 1:66 blu-rays to check.

update: I just noticed the blu of Despair I have is 1.66 and it plays with black bars on the side!