Released 1967
Stars Catherine Deneuve, Jean Sorel, Michel Piccoli, Geneviève Page
Directed by Luis Buñuel

Catherine Deneuve plays a bored housewife who becomes a belle de jour (prostitute of the day). The film contains no sweaty, steamy sex scenes. Hardly any nudity, and that discreet. What is sexual in this movie takes place entirely within the mind of Severine (Deneuve). We have to guess at her feelings. All she ever says explicitly is, "I cannot help myself." We are invited into her secret world. We have to complete her thoughts, and in that process, they become our thoughts. The movie understands the hypnotic intensity with which humans consider their own fantasies.

Summary by Roger Ebert