Catherine Deneuve and Saint Laurent Celebrate 50 Years of Belle de Jour
Catherine Deneuve and Saint Laurent Celebrate 50 Years of Belle de Jour
In 1967, a young Yves Saint Laurent was solicited by the Spanish director Luis Buñuel to oversee the wardrobe for his film adaptation of Joseph Kessel’s novel, Belle de Jour. Featuring Catherine Deneuve in the title role of Séverine Serizy, a beautiful young bourgeoise who seeks sexual fulfillment working as a high-class prostitute in the afternoons while her husband is at work, the film became an iconic work about the power of sexual desire and its ability to fracture our lives, and the lives of women in particular. The fashion, too, achieved cult status in its own right for subtly mirroring Séverine’s polarities, eventually making its way into real-life YSL collections that helped the designer cement a reputation for being able to materialize a certain enigma that was at once daring, but elegant. As the story goes, Deneuve and Saint Laurent’s working relationship carried over into their real lives, and the two remained close friends until the latter’s death in 2008.
It made sense then, that for the 50th anniversary of Belle de Jour, Saint Laurent’s Anthony Vaccarello cohosted a celebration with Deneuve at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. “I’m super proud to be here with Catherine,” he said, while she posed for the cameras alongside her friend Susan Sarandon. Both formidable women wore perfectly tailored black suits by Saint Laurent. “To be able to be here to celebrate something that was so important for the brand is really very special.”
The lady of the hour, Deneuve, was also greeted by friends Martin Scorsese, Debbie Harry, Martha Stewart, Chloë Sevigny, Mel Ottenberg, and Kelly Rutherford, who gathered for a glass of bubbly before a screening of the film.
It’s admittedly a little strange to watch Belle de Jour in 2018, after a year defined by the MeToo movement, which Deneuve acknowledged. For her, too, filming wasn’t always easy, something she’s been forthright about in past interviews. “I wasn’t scared,” she recalls. “But maybe I should have been. Shooting was difficult sometimes.”
At the same time, watching can be empowering. “I think the reason why it still feels forward-thinking, and why it’s still relevant, is because it deals with the sexual fantasies of women, which is something that’ll always be a part of human nature,” Deneuve tells Vogue. “The style of the film, too—the fact that I’m playing this character, who became a symbol for being elegant and simple and mysterious in certain ways, but the opposite of all those things in others, I think, is relatable. She desires, but she’s strict with herself. I think that [duality] is something that’ll never go out of fashion because women understand it. This film takes ahold of that.”
On celebrating its 50th birthday, Deneuve isn’t too sentimental, acknowledging the milestone instead with a half-amused smile. “I feel fine. It’s from another time and place, another story and life. But also, it feels close, too.”
After the screening, attendees filtered out of the movie hall for another round of Champagne before heading out into the twinkly, Christmas-light-filled night.
