Belle Toujours

It is some 40 years since Luis Bunuel's Belle de Jour, a film that prompted scandal and admiration in equal measure back in 1967. This anniversary evidently seemed ample reason for nonagenarian Portuguese director Manoel de Oliveira to deliver a sequel, of sorts.

In some ways, it's a disappointment. After all, we are given Bulle Ogier, not Catherine Deneuve, as Severine - the woman who four decades ago was a daytime prostitute with a wheelchair-bound husband and a sadomasochistic streak.

Reassuringly though, Michel Piccoli is still in situ as Henri, the client who longed to be Severine's lover. At the end of Bunuel's film, Severine was left wondering whether Henri had told her husband of her afternoon activities. Now, all these years later, the two run into one another at a concert in Paris. But while Henri is keen to rekindle the desire they once had, Severine is a widow and leaden with remorse for what happened.

Despite the letdowns and the fact that there is an annoyingly puritanical flavour to the plot, this is still a rather wonderful film - the lightness of Oliveira's touch allowing a wry examination of faded lust.