3 Films by the Director Luis Buñuel Volume 1

Trio of films by surrealist Spanish director Luis Bunuel, the man who famously proclaimed: 'Thank God I'm an atheist'. 'Belle de Jour' (1968), widely considered Buñuel's masterpiece, is a surreal tale about a bored doctor's wife (Catherine Deneuve) who hears of a brothel operating near her home. Struck by a sudden desire, she goes to the brothel and offers her services in the afternoons; and encounters a wide range of characters before eventually running into a friend of her husband. 'Diary of a Chambermaid' is the second screen adaptation of Octave Mirbeau's novel, which was first filmed by Jean Renoir in 1946. Jeanne Moreau stars as Celestine, a beautiful and sharp-witted young maid from Paris who arrives to work on the rural Normandy estate of the wealthy Monsieur Rabour (Jean Ozenne), his daughter Madame Monteil (Françoise Lugagne) and her husband Monsieur Montiel (Michel Piccoli). Celestine soon becomes conversant with the family's quirks: M Rabour is a foot fetishist (a preference with which Celestine has no choice but to comply), while M Montiel, locked in a loveless marriage with his frigid wife, indulges in various dalliances with the female servants. Meanwhile Joseph (George Géret), the fascist grounds keeper, has set his sights on Celestine, but she refuses him - until a young girl, Clare (Dominique Sauvage) is killed, and, believing that Joseph is responsible for her murder, Celestine finally sleeps with him to elicit a confession. 'The Milky Way' (1968) is an allegorical study of Catholic doctrine which follows two tramps as they undertake a pilgrimage from Paris to Compostello, Spain. Along the way they meet a prostitute, the devil, the Virgin Mary, the Marquis de Sade and Jesus.