Belle de jour (1967)

By today’s standards Belle De Jour (meaning “beauty of the night”) is a relatively tame psychological drama. But when it was released in 1967, the film broke nude ground for sexual anarchy. In addition to its anti-religious elements, it centers around a leading lady in see-through nighties who plays a woman who longs to be degraded. As such, the foreign flick was generally condemned by any right-thinking decent person, making it a must-see for wrong-thinking indecent people. Based on Joseph Kessel’s same-named novel, the film features the impeccable Catherine Deneuve as Severine. Despite the fact that she loves her husband (Jean Sorel), they don’t have sexual chemistry due to her unfulfilled masochistic desires. When Severine learns about a high-class brothel nearby, she takes a job working for Madame Anaïs (Geneviève Page) for a few hours a day. Or does she? See, this film is from surrealist master Luis Buñuel which means we can’t be totally sure if Severine’s extracurricular activities are real or mere masturbatory fantasy. In fact, the only thing we can be certain of is that Ms. Deneuve doffs her duds. In addition to lounging around in her old school skivvies, the blonde bombshell bares her buns and side breast while undressing for work. If that’s not arousing enough, her co-workers also strut their stuff in undies that overwhelm. Check out the pink brassiere and matching panties on Mathilde (Maria Latour) and the black corset on Charlotte (Françoise Fabian). Needless to say, Mr. Skin is giving these gals a raise!