Belle Toujour

Portuguese filmmaker Manoel de Oliviera pays homage to Luis Bunuel‘s masterful exercise in surreal eroticism, Belle de Jour , with this latter-day sequel. 40 years on whilst attending a concert Henri Husson is startled to see Severine and follows her, begging for a chance to have dinner. While she‘s reluctant to acknowledge him, he eventually wears her down with the promise of revealing an old secret. Meeting at dinner, Severine expects Henri to disclose the revelation: what he told her husband 40 years ago while he was paralysed from a gunshot wound inflicted by a lover. While Henri knew Severine‘s secret, he never told her if he did (or did not) reveal her secret life to her wheelchair-bound husband, and she‘s long wondered if he ever betrayed her confidences. However, motivated by revenge he refuses to disclose the secret and leaves her in despair having satisfied his sadism and avenged his ego.