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Reviews Counted: 36
Fresh: 23
Rotten:13
Average Rating: 6.2/10
Consensus: An unexpectedly moving sequel to Luis Bunuel's Belle du Jour, Belle Toujours is a short and sweet elegy on aging, sexuality, and the power of cinema.
Theatrical Release: Jun 8, 2007 Limited
Synopsis: Portuguese director Manoel de Oliveira was in his 90s when he made this homage to the surrealist Luis Bunuel film BELLE DE JOUR. Set 38 years after the original, Oliveira's film also stars Michel Piccoli as Henri Husson--a man just as... [More]
Starring: Michel Piccoli, Bulle Ogier, Leonor Baldaque, Ricardo Trepa
Director: Manoel de Oliveira
Beautifully, economically, directed, acted and photographed (by Sabine Lancelin), ‘Belle Toujours’ is essentially an affectionate, witty, often farcical jeu d’esprit, sweetly and knowingly bringing together the old-fashioned and the modern.
Oliveira's slender Belle Toujours has a certain curiosity value for fans of Belle De Jour, even if it never matches the surreal brilliance of the earlier film.
As such, you want it to be a timeless triumph, but sadly it’s a minor work.
Top Critic There is something reductive in all these talky explanations, nailing down the mysteries of fantasy and dream life that Buñuel so audaciously left hanging.
Top Critic The film is a maddening mix of mild fascination and boredom. Bulle Ogier plays Séverine, as Deneuve opted not to reprise her role. Without her, the film lacks the required frisson.
Pointless and just a little bit silly, it lumbers from one unlikely scenario to another while also managing to shoehorn in a couple of blousy strumpets who look like they've wandered in from an adult panto.
As an echo of the Buñuel masterwork, it could hardly be better in teasing out and expanding on its themes. Effortless artistry, in fact.
A watchable and intriguing drama, with subtle moments of humour, although it's essentially a companion piece to Belle de Jour and doesn't quite stand up on its own.
Belle Toujours allows Oliveira to reminisce, to be slightly playful and naughty, but still thoughtful.
Toujours suggests either creative immortality of a work of cinema as it flows through the imaginative process from one director to another, or simply sexual obsession perpetually unresolved. Or perhaps even a little of both.
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Belle Toujours lets us peer at one master embroidering on the legacy of another master.
Top Critic Belle Toujours is doggedly inconsequential, deliberately non-eventful and blank.
The pace is leisurely and patient but there is a spry wit and sly sensibility behind the quietly elegant direction...
BELLE TOUJOURS is a minor key companion piece to the original film and would make a great double feature evening either in theaters or at home on DVD.
Both performers make the most of skimpy roles, raising an eyebrow or focusing a gaze. But only those who’ve forgotten Buñuel’s psychosexual daring will find such modest achievements nourishing.
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