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Image from: Life of Pi (2012)
Belle de Jour: 50th Anniversary 4K Restoration and Blu-ray
Posted May 3, 2017 03:59 PM by
StudioCanal will introduce a brand new 4K restoration of director Luis Buñuel's classic film Belle de Jour at this year's edition of Cannes Classics. A Blu-ray release of the film is expected to be announced later this year.
Synopsis: Undoubtedly Luis Buñuel's most accessible film, Belle de Jour is an elegant and erotic masterpiece that maintains as hypnotic a grip on modern audiences today as it did on its debut over 50 years ago.
Severine is a beautiful young woman married to a doctor. She loves her husband dearly, but cannot bring herself to be physically intimate with him. She indulges instead in vivid, kinky, erotic fantasies to entertain her sexual desires. Eventually she becomes a prostitute, working in a brothel in the afternoons while remaining chaste in her marriage. Stars the incomparable Catherine Deneuve in a career defining role as Severine, the eponymous heroine of the film.
*In 2009, the studio released the classic film on Blu-ray via the StudioCanal Collection. You can see our listing and review of the first release here.
Listings for TRISTANA and DIARY OF A CHAMBERMAID also appearing on Amazon, so I reckon there will be a few Buñuel titles appearing courtesy of StudioCanal (no doubt under their new 'Vintage World Cinema' banner).
@sjt I can understand your frustration with something like this, but this is how I see it: Movies aren't restored just for DVD/blu-ray releases. They're restored to preserve the film as a whole, for theatrical releases and not just home video releases. Studiocanal probably saw fit to restore it in 4K because the old master is relatively outdated (though still good) and probably not necessarily the best for cinema viewing though still good to watch on your HDTV. The restoration is screening at Cannes anyway and it wouldn't hurt Studiocanal to also release it on Blu-ray, would it? That's my take on it.
sjt - I agree about 'The Phantom Of Liberty' - we really need that one on Blu. (Just a minor correction though - it was his second last film. His last one was 'That Obscure Object Of Desire'.)
We definitely need blu rays for all the works during his Mexican years(only a few available at this point)...especially El and Wuthering Heights, and Nazarin.
You're quite right, of course. I was actually trying to type penultimate, kept getting it wrong, decided to change it to next-last, and promptly forgot to type "next". I need to get out more.....
I admire much of Bunuel's oeuvre unreservedly, including The Obscure Object etc. But I ADORE The Phantom of Liberty, because as well as all the eccentricity and general biazzarerie, it's also hysterically funny. Is there anything more hilarious than the boozy, chain-smoking, gambling monks who walk out en masse when Michel Lonsdale decides to have his arse furiously whipped by his old whore assistant only to moan desperately "Couldn't at least one of you stay?"
If you stop admiring your own reflection for a moment, you might notice that this is a UK release, where the region A-locked Criterion edition isn't available, or is ever going to be.
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