Fuzzy wuzzy shot of me at Sheroes #6: Erykah Badu in salonnière mode. Styled lovingly by Porcelaine Desire & John Taccone. Hyacinthe eye shadow by Miss Janet Vu. Shot, of course, by the Halmos.

Séverine’s visceral confrontations with the ‘perverse’ nature of her sexuality are marked by the camera’s intense focus on her pilgrim buckle pump. The most memorable sequence is Séverine’s unsure first walk up to Madame Anaïs’s apartment. Buñuel deliberately slows the pace, weighing her indecisiveness with bated tension: will she or won’t she? Granted, there is an understandable uncertainty in this moment, but this hesitance still captures the control she exerts in her eventual decision to step inside the brothel.  

Another factor that muddies Séverine’s perceived submissive nature is her affair with Marcel, the customer who is able to fulfill the sadomasochistic fantasies that her husband Pierre cannot. When the two are entangled in white bed sheets, the shoe close-ups are revealing. Marcel’s boots are unlaced, tossed on the ground, but an otherwise naked Séverine still has the pilgrim buckle pumps on her feet. This unexpected shift in gender power dynamics (Marcel will fall in love with Séverine, forcing her to leave the brothel) is visually mediated by the masculine tailoring of the pilgrim buckle pump.

Model Jessica Stella as Ms. Denueve. Photographer: David Waldman.