Last evening I stopped on the way home from my conference for some provisions at the local grocery store, while Mistress was collecting our daughter from her not too faraway college campus.
She was home only briefly - disrupting the karma of the empty nest just so long as it took her to gather up some things to head to a friend's house for the evening.
That gave us time for a bike ride on the cool evening, before adjourning to our bedroom for some very civilized kick off the weekend love making, followed by a restful nap.
We drifted back to planet earth around 8 pm, just in time to prepare a quick dinner and watch a movie that had been sitting in its netflix envelope for a few weeks on my dresser: Belle de Jour.
I suspect most of our readers have seem this: a Louis Brunel classic starring a young Katherine Deneauve from 1967. I was in high school then, so doubt I saw it in the original run, but maybe in college, sometime in the 1968-72 time frame. Then Molly and I caught it at the theatre during its re-release around 1995.
It was interesting to see in light of this chatter about Shades of Grey, the E L James "mommy porn" that we had fun with here earlier this week.
First, "Belle", a 23 year old frigid newly wed, is about the same age as the virginal Anastasia in Shades of Grey. Both start out sexually inexperienced. But Belle already has her hunky husband. She just seems unable to warm to him, as they sleep in those twin beds you might recall from Ward and June Cleaver's bedroom.
But unlike Ana, who seems never to have considered the subject of sex before falling under the spell of the incredibly rich of a tad sadistic Christian, Belle has some strange fantasies going on underneath. The film starts with this scene, where she imagines her husband turning her over to two gruff coachmen who tie her to a tree limb, whip and then sexually molest her to her unexpected delight.
Ultimately, Belle takes her fantasies to a high end brothel in Paris, where she experiences a variety of clients. One discovers that "she likes it rough". Her clients provide the education and stimulation that her handsome if bland doctor husband does not. But of course she always makes sure to be home by 5 pm to greet her husband as the young innocent when he returns from a long day at the hospital.
Mistress and I saw the movie anew last night, enjoying the Paris street scenes after our recent trip, and the Mad Men with a French twist 60's era costumes and sets. And we noticed in one scene that the lovely Belle was wearing black patent leather shoes similar to those Molly had on in the picture in Thursday's blog.
It's hard to recall what old Mick took from this movie back in my innocent youth, on that all male Catholic campus. But it certainly didn't discourage me from testing conventional sexual boundaries later in life, did it?
I suspect that in its own way, the Shades of Grey phenomenon, despite the hackneyed writing and fantastical characters will induce its own legacy of experimentation.And today, my own lovely "Belle de Jour" will be stopping off at J's house for some afternoon delight of her own.
"I hope you don't mind if it interferes with our usual Saturday afternoon 'activities', Slave.... it's been a while since I fucked you in the Ass."
"Not at all, Mistress..... I'm sure J has been missing you.... he deserves a matinee."
Of course, nothing prevented me from taking full advantage of Mistress's availability this morning here in the executive suite, which should explain the slight delay in this morning's post.
Bon Jour, all. Mine has already started out rather "bon".
