Maria Latour Movies
Belle de Jour dramatizes the collision between depravity and elegance, one of the favorite themes of director Luis Buñuel. Catherine Deneuve stars as a wealthy but bored newlywed, eager to taste life to the fullest. She seemingly gets her wish early in the film when she is kidnapped, tied to a tree, and gang-raped. It turns out that this is only a daydream, but her subsequent visits to a neighboring brothel, where she offers her services, certainly seem to be real. This illusion/reality dichotomy extends to the final scenes, in which we are offered two possible endings. Thanks to a question of copyright and ownership, Belle de Jour disappeared from view shortly after its 1967 release, not even resurfacing on videotape. When it was reissued theatrically in 1994, many critics placed the perplexing but mesmerizing film on their lists of that year's best films. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Catherine Deneuve, Jean Sorel, (more)
- 1967
In this stylish crime drama, a smooth-talking insurance investigator looks into a bank robbery and ends up breaking up two famous gangs involved in a drug war. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Jean Yanne
- 1967
Mathieu (Robert Hirsch) is a mild-mannered man engaged to a woman whose father is involved in running a house of prostitution. When the father dies, Mathieu inherits the bordello and is unprepared for his new position. He overcomes his shyness and becomes a sexual dynamo when his workers feed him some powerful amphetamines. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi
- Starring:
- Dr. Robert Hirsch, Sophie Desmarets, (more)
- 1967
This talkative and unevenly paced feature finds Fou (Jean Lefebvre) the inventor of a gas that makes the users fall in love. He is chased by his boss, the police, and spies, who seek to secure the secret recipe for their own selfish purposes. A shadowy American underworld figure tries to intimidate the inventor. A half-hearted attempt at comedy tries to go along with the double dealing and trickery of the thin plot of the film. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi
- Starring:
- Bernard Blier, Pierre Brasseur, (more)
