MovieChat Forums > Belle de jour (1968) Discussion > Childhood trauma?

Childhood trauma?

posted 15 years ago by buy_to_own
15 replies | jump to latest

Although this most interesting film is made up of various "fantasy and reality scenes", I was under the impression that the Cathereine Deneuve character did indeed suffer from abuse as a child. Infact, this seems to be the basis for the physical indifference towards her husband, which in turn spurns the events which make up the entire movie. The Studio Canal 40th Anniversary DVD includes an excellent, indepth interview with the screenwriter but he doesn't mention this thread whatsoever. Was Bunuel attempting to address the long term, psychological effects of child abuse way back in 1967?

[–] Trump-Returns 14 years ago

I think he was and I think you are right, this is why the husband is so understanding about her coldness towards him. I suppose this is the device the writer intended to use to account for her "Deviant" sexual behavior. I personally find it insulting that a woman has to be some kind of victim if she is to engage in that kind of behavior. Why can't a woman simply want to explore her sexuality or engage in this kind of behavior out of boredom, why does she have to be a victim of abuse?

Any of the kinky needs of the Johns are perfectly normal but the kinks of the Hookers are tied to abuse, it says something about the way men think of womens' sexuality.

[–] bager 14 years ago

In reality , when you here interviews you find out that many prostitutes are doing this job because they suffered abuse as a child

[–] sivilcavage 14 years ago

agreed. it's lazy thinking and insensitivity on both ends. women are incapable of finding joy in sexual expression? wrong. people that are sexually abused only know how to seek ways to relive their trauma and subject themselves to abuse? wrong.

as for the trope "all street walking prostitutes are victims of sexual abuse", some people need to get a clue. most people would be SHOCKED to find out how many people around them have suffered sexual abuse as a child. and how many of those people have done plenty of other things with their life that don't even approach prostitution and/or substance abuse, or even therapy for that matter. the majority of women and men that end up as prostitutes are where they are more often because of socioeconomic realities. coping with prior sexual abuse is just an obstacle (often among many) that the individual must overcome so that they can learn to not depend on sexual favors for their livelihood or sense of fulfillment.

i haven't seen this film for a while and never picked up the childhood sexual abuse vibe...

[–] creaturefeeture 13 years ago

No no no no and no! She was not molested. She has a look of sly enjoyment as the plumber kisses her. She doesn't take communion because she enjoyed it. She has sexual desires from a young age but the church tells her it is wrong, it's a sin. She becomes ashamed and it is the church and catholicism that creates her neuroticism, not the plumber. That's why she goes to the brothel, because she is full of sexuality but society (back then and even today) tells women it's wrong to be sexually active or expressive. Women are sexually repressed. Which is reinforced when Henri rejects her after he finds she is impure. And her husband gets a kick out of his wives purity. She wants a man to abuse her because she feels guilty, she feels she deserves it.

[–] srinath_r_htanirs 9 years ago

You hit the nail on its head. She did enjoy the kiss. She probably had fantasies even at a young age. The church scene showed that she felt uneasy and guilty over her fantasies.

It was not molesting that made her frigid. She was afraid of her husband's reaction to her fantasies, whom she clearly loved.

[–] alexisramirez 8 years ago

I totally agree with you. The whole film is a commentary on how society creates an ideal stereotype were women don't supposed to enjoy sexuality. The image of the plumber touching the girl, had the intention of gross out us, the audience, on the idea of the purity being defiled. Then there is the image in the church, showing the conflict between the desire and the imposed morals.

What still escapes to me, it is why she finds happiness at the end on her husband's condition? Because there is no more pressure on please him?

[–] Eumenides_0 14 years ago

Is it really hard to believe that a woman with a normal childhood may enjoy kinky sex?

This world is a comedy to those that think, a tragedy to those that feel.

[–] scotbpens 14 years ago

Is it really hard to believe that a woman with a normal childhood may enjoy kinky sex?

Not at all. I'm sure lots of women who had perfectly normal childhoods enjoy kinky sex. God, I hope so!

All the universe . . . or nothingness. Which shall it be, Passworthy? Which shall it be?

[–] lilleblomst 14 years ago

"Is it really hard to believe that a woman with a normal childhood may enjoy kinky sex?"

NO, but what everyone forgets - is that this is ONE character, in ONE movie.
THIS character was sexually molested, and that is SHE has issues regarding sex.

It pisses me off when people generalize, and this that a movie is more than a story.

[–] scotbpens 14 years ago

In the original novel by Joseph Kessel, it's made explicitly clear that Séverine was sexually molested as a child.

All the universe . . . or nothingness. Which shall it be, Passworthy? Which shall it be?

[–] AfterwardDeified 14 years ago

She was definitely sexually molested. I mean, look at the way she kissed her lovers, even Marcel. She acted like she didn't know what she was doing...like it was all new to her. So although I really wanted (and want) to hate Severine, I couldn't; she had serious mental issues.

[–] Fidelio111 13 years ago

I find it hard to believe she didn't experience some childhood trauma or other. She is a woman who can never be happy with the normality of her married life no matter what her unfortunate husband does. Her decision therefore to take up prostutition in secret is not so much an anomaly, but an expression of her self-loathing. Her inner-life, revealed through her comic dream sequences tells us this much. Like any pathological liar, the double life she begins to lead is necessary to her. As the Severine her husband knows and loves, she gets her much needed supply of self-esteem and thus the oxygen of external validation. As Belle du Jour she can indulge the dangerous, masochistic sexual behaviour that makes her feel alive once again. She can then return to her husband, free from her usual frigidity and aloofness, to return his affections.

[–] matheusmagalhaes10 13 years ago

I really don't believe that Buñuel wanted this movie to be an (generalistic) examination of women that were molested in their childhood.
It seems like the society ALWAYS expect someone that was abused, to grew up to be psychologically damaged, sexually frigid and/or with a huge probability of becoming a child molester too.
I know, personally, people that experienced this and didn't become none of these, of course that they had to deal with the trauma but they overcome and that's all.

What i think is that, not only Buñuel tried to point this out but, also, he wanted to show how society is (still) prejudicial about women's sexual freedom.
Husson represented it, the character only desire Séverine while she was virginal, fragile and frigid. When he discovers that she, like him, also has sexual fantasies and desires, he lost interest.
All the men characters of the movie went to a brothel at some point (even her husband). For them, there's no judgment about it but, for the prostitutes, they do it because the money or because they're perverted, like Séverine.
We refuse to just accept that she was discovering her sexuality, we need to explain her behavior as perversion.

Your mother cook socks in hell!

[–] Child_OfThe_Moon 12 years ago

All the men characters of the movie went to a brothel at some point (even her husband). For them, there's no judgment about it but, for the prostitutes, they do it because the money or because they're perverted, like Séverine.

Of course they do it for money; if women wanted sex with random strangers and as often as men do, prostitutes wouldn't be making so much money to begin with. It's not necessary to deny that in order to refrain from judgement.

[–] henrimaine 11 years ago

The film contained a couple of brief, but very intriguing, scenes about her childhood. I wish these scenes had been longer, it would have been interesting to learn about the possibly kinky experiences she had had as a child. Perhaps, Bunuel should have cut some of the syrrealistic dream sequences shorter and added some length to the childhood sequences.