"Set on a French manor during the uneasy 1930s but as timeless as neighbor hate and forgotten injustice, the film pivots on Buñuel's favorite subject: men twisted inside like rope by the tensions of their own absurd desires, and by their preposterous presumption that they're worthy of their own obscure objects." - Michael Atkinson

After hearing the address of a local brothel she seeks employment there working afternoons (hence the title) while her husband is at work. Severine finds sexual and emotional satisfaction in being ordered about by the paying customers and grows to love her husband more and more, though not physically.

Events begin to spiral out of control when she becomes involved with an unsettling young criminal--a cocaine dealer and murderer with a cane and metal teeth.

Run Time:100 minutes . Region 1 encoding

Belle de Jour has a close connection to exploitation film-making. The plot is indistinguishable from a 1960s sexploitation film but the execution is sublime. (If I could say one thing to all aspiring artists it would be that what you say is not as important as how you say it.) Belle de Jour is derived from a long tradition of French erotic literature that preceded it. In turn, the film became the chief stylistic inspiration for the best of the 1970s French erotic film genre.

Belle de Jour evidences the interplay of artistic intent and social mores, with film censorship standards dictating an artistic motif. Belle de Jour has a visual theme of semi-transparency. Things are often seen indirectly, in mirrors, through rain-streaked windows, etc.. We cannot be sure, however, how much of our obscured vision of Severine is artistic intention versus social accommodation. We see her in the shower through fogged glass, walking nude through an immense villa in a transparent black floor-length veil. In the brothel we do not see her bare breasts but we do see her pubic hair delineated through her thin panties.

A classic, perfectly cast and beautifully photographed film, Luis Bunuel's Tristana is a twisted, haunting study of sexual politics and the nature of freedom, and it was Bunuel's last film to be shot in his native Spain. Tristana and Don Lope are both passionate about freedom of choice but they both find their choices regulated by unconscious desire - a recurring Bunuelian theme that finds its perfect embodiment in these two fascinating characters.

DVD FEATURES: Widescreen (1.66:1) Version . French And Spanish Audio . Optional English Subtitles . Color collectible booklet.

"Bourgeois convention is demolished in Luis Buñuel's surrealist gem The Phantom of Liberty. Featuring an elegant soiree with guests seated at toilet bowls, poker-playing monks using religious medals as chips, and police officers looking for a missing girl who is right under their noses, this perverse, playfully absurd comedy of non sequiturs deftly compiles many of the themes that preoccupied Buñuel throughout his career-from the hypocrisy of conventional morality to the arbitrariness of social arrangements."