BELLE DE JOUR

SUCH a random happy thing to see that movie! Took K to the bus because she was going home to study and feeling overwhelmed with work and doesn't necessarily work well when I'm around and, in walking home, went into cinema du parc on a whim. and since it happened to be 9 there were movies playing and belle de jour was one of them. what a fantastic coincidence! some writer gave a little talk before the movie that had nothing to do with the movie, he had this voice that made me think of all the saliva in his mouth, not a bad voice, just one that reminded me of his saliva. he gave a self aggrandizing talk about taking his son out of high school because he felt he was watching him die there. he reminded everyone of how unnatural it is to force kids at the most energetic moment of their lives to sit in chairs for hours every day, and i suppose that is an important thing to remember. and that it shouldn't be a medical condition to not be able to tolerate that kind of thing; his son DOESN'T have ADD, there is nothing wrong with him, school just wasn't for him.

but belle de jour! catherine deneuve has a perfect face for that role, like so much pale, pale marble. what a disconcerting but happy idea about relationships, it's funny how much it reminded me of dan savage's advice column. i guess it is unnatural to think that all our sexual selves should be invested in one person for the rest of our lives, and that it is such a healthy and necessary thing for many people to find something outside of that. That such a measure is not a rejection of a spouse, only an admission that we contain multitudes.

that he ends up in that coma is so brilliantly funny, my god that is so funny and appropriate. but i'm also glad that bunuel didn't leave it on that note, that he didn't put forth such a crude notion of what her happiness would constitute. ah! he only symbolically confronted the communication between the two of them, because to literalize that would have strained our belief and added such intensity and drama to a movie that would not have been able to handle it.

i think it's disappointing that he included those scenes in the beginning of the handyman touching her, that adds such a crass, freudian angle to a story that is really, at least for me, about how normal her situation is and should be seen to be. but wow, what a fantastic movie, what excellent bright thoughts that gives me about the future of my romantic life, about the happy compromises we will have to make, that the monogamy of our lives is not armageddon.

i hate that actor that played marcel, and i thought he was quite unconvincing in the role. he's in so many movies playing an effete lunatic.

there is also a lot in that movie about the fantasies of men and women that would also be interesting to explore. because some of the stuff she liked and what men liked to do to her made me unhappy. maybe that's just because s&m stuff remains so far beyond the pale for me, so inscrutable and bizarre, but to sanction that kind of violence seems terrible even if it is honest. so many thoughts so many thoughts i don't want to forget that movie, not ever