In a few recent movies, the ending changes the entire meaning of what we have seen up to that point. (Naming names would clue viewers in to the twist ending, and largely give it away.) Belle de Jour, I believe, is another such movie, though it is apparently not regarded as such.
***Spoilers Ahead***
Severine (the Catherine Deneuve character) has daydreams about being mistreated and even sexually abused. The interspersing of these dream-sequences is Bunuel's way of warning us that what comes ahead may be real life, or may be all in Severine's head.
With that in mind...the final two minutes of this movie need to be examined very carefully. Her husband is no longer crippled; indeed, he smiles and enjoys a glass of wine with her, and the impression is that there has been no rift at all between them. And she sees an empty horse-drawn carriage...a carriage that appeared in an earlier dream-sequence. What does it mean?
I think it can only mean that Severine never actually went to work for Madame Anais. You will recall that she was about to knock on her door, that first day, lost her nerve, and went to sit on a bench in a park. It was at that point that her daydreams commenced; and from that day onward, she worked as a high-priced call girl only in her mind. Her daydream as "Belle de Jour" continued until it reached a kind of crisis point--the shooting of her husband--and this induced a kind of catharsis. One wants to think that she left her dreamworld for good, though this must be left to conjecture. ...if the above is correct, then Bunuel has pulled off a complete table-turning every bit as audacious as the celebrated twist endings of TUS (1995) and TSS (1999) (those recent films I mentioned above). More so, perhaps, since many people don't understand how the tenor of the entire film has changed even as the final credits are rolling....
***Spoilers Ahead***
Severine (the Catherine Deneuve character) has daydreams about being mistreated and even sexually abused. The interspersing of these dream-sequences is Bunuel's way of warning us that what comes ahead may be real life, or may be all in Severine's head.
With that in mind...the final two minutes of this movie need to be examined very carefully. Her husband is no longer crippled; indeed, he smiles and enjoys a glass of wine with her, and the impression is that there has been no rift at all between them. And she sees an empty horse-drawn carriage...a carriage that appeared in an earlier dream-sequence. What does it mean?
I think it can only mean that Severine never actually went to work for Madame Anais. You will recall that she was about to knock on her door, that first day, lost her nerve, and went to sit on a bench in a park. It was at that point that her daydreams commenced; and from that day onward, she worked as a high-priced call girl only in her mind. Her daydream as "Belle de Jour" continued until it reached a kind of crisis point--the shooting of her husband--and this induced a kind of catharsis. One wants to think that she left her dreamworld for good, though this must be left to conjecture. ...if the above is correct, then Bunuel has pulled off a complete table-turning every bit as audacious as the celebrated twist endings of TUS (1995) and TSS (1999) (those recent films I mentioned above). More so, perhaps, since many people don't understand how the tenor of the entire film has changed even as the final credits are rolling....