Belle toujours 2006

Sid Smith, Chicago Tribune: Belle Toujours is doggedly inconsequential, deliberately non-eventful and blank. Read more

Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader: It's also more about class and less about sexual desire. Read more

Wesley Morris, Boston Globe: Oliveira is a man of astounding finesse. The movie accumulates the sort of meaning that lifts it far beyond the realm of a director's conceit. Read more

Jan Stuart, Newsday: Bunuel watchers will cluck with pleasure at that one; neophytes can revel in the steely elegance of [actor] Piccoli, who at 80 (when this film was made) effervesces with the joy of his craft. Belle Toujours glistens with discreet charms. Read more

Elizabeth Weitzman, New York Daily News: The 98-year-old [director] Oliveira addresses the beauty and cruelty of aging with such subtlety that the movie is worth taking on its own terms, as the hard-earned musings of its creator. Read more

V.A. Musetto, New York Post: The question lingers: Do we really need a sequel to Belle de Jour? Read more

Andrew O'Hehir, Salon.com: It's a tremendously economical film, with not a shot or a second wasted, yet rich with ambiguity, comedy, longing and sadness. Read more

Bill Stamets, Chicago Sun-Times: Belle Toujours lets us peer at one master embroidering on the legacy of another master. Read more

Ben Kenigsberg, Time Out: Read more

Joshua Rothkopf, Time Out: Read more

Wally Hammond, Time Out: Beautifully, economically, directed, acted and photographed (by Sabine Lancelin), 'Belle Toujours' is essentially an affectionate, witty, often farcical jeu d'esprit, sweetly and knowingly bringing together the old-fashioned and the modern. Read more

Deborah Young, Variety: Oliveira's short but sweet rumination on growing old and the fading of sexual desire is not only high-concept, but one of his most watchable. Read more

Michelle Orange, Village Voice: Falls too often into didactic post-game analysis for its delicate mysteries to retain their luster. Read more