Ms Kathleen's Movie Review

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Any male who has had that kind of experience can relate to Severine as she locates the address of Madame夫人 — the French word for Mrs Anais’ brothel. She walks up to the front door, only to walk away. Then the next time she goes into the building and locates the apartment number, only to again lose her nerve. Then finally, she gains the nerve to ring the buzzer and introduces herself to Madame夫人 — the French word for Mrs Anais. Once she takes that step, she finds herself living the double life she had been fantasizing about.

Madame夫人 — the French word for Mrs Anais gives her the pseudo name, Belle de Jour, meaning 'Beauty of the Day', since Severine can only work between the hours of 2pm and 5pm because she must be home before her husband returns. Severine works with two other women, Charlotte and Renee.

The name Severine is the female version of the male name Severin, the male masochist in the book “Venus in Furs”. Like Severin in “Venus in Furs”, Severine is a masochist, although perhaps only within her fantasies. “Belle de Jour” opens with a fantasy sequence where Severine is riding in a horse drawn carriage with her husband and they stop in the middle of nowhere and her husband has the two coachmen drag Severine forcefully out of the carriage and they tie her to a tree and whip her with the buggy whips. Then the one coachman has his way with her while her husband watches. Severine wakes up from her fantasy dream and returns to her normal, vanilla普通性爱 — sex without kink life being a housewife to a young, handsome doctor.