Belle toujours (2006)

38 years after their last encounter, Henri Husson thinks he sees Séverine in a concert. He follows her and sadistically takes out a slow and painful revenge.

Director:

Manoel de Oliveira

Writer:

Manoel de Oliveira

Stars:

Michel Piccoli, Bulle Ogier, Ricardo Trêpa

4 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview:
Michel Piccoli	...	Henri Husson
Bulle Ogier	...	Séverine Serizy
Ricardo Trêpa	...	Barman
Leonor Baldaque	...	Young Prostitute
Júlia Buisel	...	Old Prostitute
Lawrence Foster	...	Himself - Direction musicale

Storyline

Belle toujours occurred to me unexpectedly and, as I had the will to pay my tribute to Luis Buñuel and Jean-Claude Carrière, I was happy to have found a way to do so, perhaps the best, and I started working. What is it about? Taking two of the strange characters from the film Belle de Jour, and make them relive, thirty eight years later, in the strangeness of a secret which was only in the possession of the masculine character and a knowledge that had become crucial to the female character. Thus, passed this time, they meet again. She tries to avoid him by all means. But he stalks her and eventually manages to gain her attention with the intention of revealing the secret that he alone can unfold. They set a meeting, a dinner, where she expects that all will be revealed. During dinner, she, now a widow, awaits the expected revelation: what he had told her husband while he was mute and paralytic because of a gunshot wound fired by a lover of hers. The situation is tense and she ends up ...

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Plot Keywords:

dinner | secret | revenge | concert | sequel | 

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Genres:

Drama | Music

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Official Sites:

Official site Official stite [Japan]

Country:

Portugal France

Language:

French

Release Date:

11 April 2007 (France)

Also Known As:

Bella sempre

Filming Locations:

France

Box Office

Opening Weekend USA:

$5,363, 10 June 2007, Limited Release

Gross USA:

$10,643, 9 September 2007

Company Credits

Production Co:

Filbox Produções,Les Films d'Ici,Instituto do Cinema, Audiovisual e Multimédia (ICAM)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

68 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Director Manoel de Oliveira made this film at the age of 97.

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Connections

Follows Belle de Jour (1967)

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Soundtracks

Symphonie n° 8 en sol majeur - Op. 88 (mouvements 3 et 4)
(credited incorrectly as mouvements 2 et 3)
Composed by Antonín Dvorák
Performed by L'Orchestre de la Fondation Calouste Gulbenkian
Conducted by Lawrence Foster

User Reviews

Some memories shall stay buried forever.

It's always nice to fallow the evolution of some characters through the years from films to films. You have the impression to see old friends again after a long separation. But there, the separation was really very long, and years go by, everyone got old and tired. All you got at the end of this meeting is the sad feeling that 38 years after having lost contact, it was quite useless to meet again, for you don't have anything to say to this characters anymore.

In 1967, Louis Bunuel filmed a terrible story of a perverse woman beautifully played by Catherine Deneuve. 38 years later, Michel Piccoli, who played in the original movie a friend of Deneuve's husband, assists to a endlessly concert of Dvorak, where he sees the ex-Bunuel character. In old time's sake, he'll want to invite her to diner, but she doesn't really have a nice souvenir of their relationship. And she claims that time changes her a lot : and indeed, Severine, formerly known as Caterine Deneuve, has now become Bulle Augier (but she's quite credible in old-young Deneuve).

It's really sad to see that in this false sequel the trouble, the wit and the intelligence of Bunuel are replaced by a boring feeling and an excessive slow motion impression. Beside a tasteful mute diner scene between the two mythical characters, even the most passionate cinephile will have trouble to find anything consistent in this repetitive style exercise. He'll just be surprised in front of this plain interpretation of "Belle de jour", and be amazed by the incoherences. Henry Husson bought for example Severine the strange box a mysterious Asian character brought when he met her years ago : but how can he know this kind of details, when he was merely an external observer of her life ?

No wonder why Catherine Deneuve run away in front of this inconsistence and quite lazy movie. But man can wonder why the critics praise this movie when "Belle Toujours" is obviously a minor piece in Oliveira's impressive filmography.