Le Charme Discret de la Bourgeoisie (The Discreet Charm Of The Bourgeoisie) poster & wallpaper

Fernando Rey, Paul Frankeur, Delphine Seyrig

Six wealthy people gather for a dinner party but never manage to sit down and eat.

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PG, 1 hr. 45 min.

Directed by: Luis Buñuel

Release Date: September 15, 1972

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DVD Release Date: December 19, 2000

Stats: 621 reviews

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The Discreet Charm Of The Bourgeoisie Delphine Seyrig and Fernando Rey Stephane Audran in the Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie Le Charme Discret de la Bourgeoisie (The Discreet Charm Of The Bourgeoisie)
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Flixster Reviews (621)

  • her69eyes
    May 6, 2009
    her69eyes
    Luis Bunuel's "The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie" hardly resembles what you'd call a typical movie. It's structure is anecdotal, and it therefore comes off as a series of surrealist short films. These sequences could stand on their own - they're simple stories involving the o...( read more)bscure lusts and temptations lingering underneath the facade of manners. To Bunuel, the idea of a bourgeoisie lifestyle is contradictory to our animal instincts, and he has no problem making fun of some of the absurdities we carry out in an effort to remain "civilized".

    The plot is quite simple: six bourgeois friends are trying to sit down and have a meal together. Each time, however, their efforts are thwarted. The wide array of obstacles include arriving to the host's house on the wrong day, finding out that a restaurant owner is being mourned in an adjacent room, and, eventually, finding out that their stale roast chicken is actually a stage prop. Things seem to get stranger as they progress, with some of the scenes in the last half hour being dreams within dreams. For instance, we hear of the horror story of a prison guard who comes back to kill. Then, of course see him: ethereal, bloody, and blue. And, at another point, a soldier recalls his childhood, which also involves the supernatural.

    I've only seen a few of Bunuel's films, but what i've found striking is how they're able to be critical without being angry or vengeful. The films i've seen all point fingers at the same social class of people, but each time Bunuel seems to identify with them rather than hate them. He realizes the absurdities, the inconsistencies, the hypocrisy, and the illusions, and he, in a way, embraces them. When, for instance, a group of soldiers fire on the dinner guests in a dream sequence, one of them takes refuge under a table. He then foolishly gives away his position by trying to sneak some food off of his plate - he can't help himself. While his ideas can be cynical, he's presenting them in such a manner that it's amusing and far from hateful. The films, no matter how dark, are comic and completely charming.

    Like "Belle de Jour" and "Diary of a Chambermaid", the film deals with sexual desires and fantasies hidden behind the illusion of grounded stability. There is a bishop who acts out his fantasies of working as a gardener for the wealthy, and we also see two hosts head outside to make love while they're expecting guests. When they arrive back in the house, dirty and picking leaves off of each other, it's the perfect contrast between "civilized" humans and ones driven by animalistic instinct.

    "The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie" is certainly an odd film that, at times, will leave you scratching your head. But it's such a welcome departure from more conventional films that strictly follow their structure. It's loose and playful, and thus it establishes a memorable dreamlike quality. I can't say I made sense of it all, but I don't know if that's the point. What matters most, however, is how humorous, charming, and inventive it is.
  • columbiatch
    June 23, 2008
    columbiatch
    More hilarity and weirdness from Don Luis. Similar concept as The Exterminating Angel, but more mannered and structurally loose. And that ending!
  • EarthlyAlien
    June 1, 2008
    EarthlyAlien
    Bishop Dufour: "I'm delighted to meet you. We have an important mission in Bogotá.
    Rafael Acosta: Bogotá is in Columbia.
    Bishop Dufour: That's right, Columbia. Sorry, I got mixed up. I've never been to Miranda, but I hear it is a magnificent country: the Great Co...( read more)rdillera, the pampas...
    Rafael Acosta: The pampas are in Argentina, monsignor.
    Bishop Dufour: The pampas. Of course. I should've known that. Recently I saw a book on Latin America. There were photos of your ancient pyramids.
    Rafael Acosta: Our pyramids? We have no pyramids in Miranda. Mexico and Guatemala have pyramids. We don't.
    Bishop Dufour: You're sure?
    Rafael Acosta: Absolutely."

    Photobucket

    If the AFI were to make a list - one of those lists they love to make and we love to read - of the weirdest, most surreal films ever made, The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie would surely be in it. And it would probably rank very high. One of last great films from legendary surrealist director Luis Buñuel, this is, quite simply, a film about rich people eating, only they never eat. They gather numerous times, have drinks and pleasant conversation, and occasionally even get to sit down at an actual table, but there is always something to prevent them from partaking in a meal. Either the host is having sex in the garden with his wife, or the military has come by for manoeuvres, or the whole thing is just a dream, or they just happen to be actors in a play, but it's always something. Something too brilliant to put into words.

    As they're getting ready to not eat, the characters discuss a large range of issues, but stick largely to the political and economic realm. Rafael (Fernando Rey) is the Ambassador of a fictional Latin American country called Miranda, and there's a number of questions that revolve around what appear to be the sensitive issues in that part of the world in 1972. Generally speaking, such topics appear to be distasteful to him, but being the good diplomat, he presses on. What's strange is that virtually none of the discussions are anything else, save for a tutorial on how to mix a dry Martini. When the Bourgeoisie talk amongst themselves, it's largely in a dignified sense; it takes the introduction of 'commoners' (usually military men) to tell tales of their childhood or odd dreams they've had recently.

    Is Buñuel trying to tell us something about the class system? Probably, but to be honest, I'm not sure what that is. You constantly feel like Buñuel is joking with us, making us think to exhaustion while laughing at us. The whole thing feels just... otherworldly. There was a moment during the film, for a split second - and I mean, literally - when I actually wondered if I was really awake, if I was actually watching what I was watching.

    There's an excess of traffic noise throughout the film, either cars driving by where they wouldn't normally be heard, or planes overhead completely muffling a conversation beyond our ability to hear. So perhaps Buñuel is trying to make the connection between the conversation of the wealthy and a sort of white noise that's persistently empty of any real content. It's also interesting to note that sex is given the same treatment as eating. There are a couple of occasions where characters are about to have sex, but something always happens to prevent it, such as a certain character's husband dropping by unexpectedly for a visit.

    In nearly everything you'll ever read about Luis Buñuel there's a mention of the time he spent with Salvador Dali, and with it the classification of Buñuel as a surrealist, which instantly brings to mind weird, mind-bending sequences (we've all seen Un chien andalou, haven't we?) as if somehow the film is going to revolve around a melting clocks or a dancing sharks theme. Sure, the film is utterly confusing and odd (at one point cockroaches fall out of a piano), but Buñuel is also a more literal filmmaker than some are willing to give him credit for. Of course, those moments that perplex us and literally leave us speechless are abundant, but the understated genius of The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie is that, for the most part, we know what's going on.

    Here, Buñuel is just having a bit of fun with us, I think. It becomes apparent pretty early on that the group isn't going to be allowed to eat an actual meal, so we start looking for things that could interrupt them. In an early scene it's been established that the men have been using the diplomatic immunity of Rafael to smuggle cocaine into the country and that he has some sort of terrorist group after him, so the characters have the underlying fear that the next interruption could be their downfall. Even when it appears the law has caught up with them, they are quickly released and Buñuel's game continues. To keep us on our toes, he throws a couple of dream sequences at us, including the always popular dream-within-a-dream, and the clever reveal that the dinner invitation is not a dinner at all, as the wall is removed and they find themselves on stage, mortified as their lines are whispered to them from just off-stage. I hesitate to use the phrase "Kafka-esque", but we're certainly in that territory.

    Quietly subversive, wickedly perverse, Buñuel manipulates his captive bourgeois characters with complete control. More 'theatre of the absurd' than surreal, The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie nevertheless abounds with situations that twist reality in subtle ways. Complacent, superior, dismissive, and hypocritical, Buñuel's victims use bright smiles, empty words, and just plain denial, in fruitless attempts to ignore the humilities and inconveniences thrown in their path. Near the end, a character casually mentions how starving he is, and Don Rafael tears into a midnight snack with gusto. And why wouldn't he? The poor man hasn't been able to eat a thing since the film started. Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant!
  • kenstachnik
    April 28, 2008
    kenstachnik
    Fascinating, sometimes infuriating but always surreal masterwork by Bunuel.
  • pier007
    September 19, 2007
    pier007
    Buñuel sets a bizarre and hilarious surreal black comedy about a bunch of decadent living deads. as usual, full of surprises from start to finish.
  • ElCochran90
    October 21, 2009
    ElCochran90
    "- I didn't know that chivalry still existed in your semi-savage country.
    - Sir, you just insulted the Republic of Miranda!
    - I don't give a damn about the Republic of Miranda!
    - And I shit on your entire army!"

    LE CHARME DIS
    ...( read more)CRET DE LA BOURGEOISIE (1972)

    Director: Luis Buñuel
    Country: France / Italy / Spain
    Genre: Comedy / Drama / Fantasy
    Length: 102 minutes

    The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie,Luis Buñuel,Luis Bunuel,Surrealism


    Ahhh, yes... Luis Buñuel. This genius actually made a sequel of the events that were depicted in the supposedly unintentional dark comedy El Ángel Exterminador (1962), one of the best Mexican masterpieces ever made. Perhaps it was the disappointment he felt after directing that surrealist gem without taking it to the extreme events he wanted to show because of the lack of means what motivated him to make one of the best surrealist movies ever committed to celluloid: Le Charme Discret de la Bourgeoisie. This revolutionary French manifesto still attacks, degrades and depicts the bourgeois class in the most honest and truthful manner, upsetting the conventional moral code and resorting to extraordinary sequences of pure absurdity. However, his attention to detail and the complex plot web make of this movie a comedy in the strictest sense of the word. Considering his past magnum opuses, it is not a repetitive concept. It still works, it sill makes laugh hard, only this time, he applies a very strong signature, a sign that would lead the audience to think that this was supposed to be one of the director's last works. It was. It still is a revolutionary concept and an audacious portrayal of liberalist ideas that shatters the moral of the modern society and lowers the dignity of the bourgeois class to a repugnant, hilarious level.

    The characters we left in El Ángel Exterminador (1962) are now living in Paris. Also, their numbers have been reduced. We now deal with six protagonists whose constant attempts of having dinner together are endlessly interrupted by a bizarre sequence of real and imaginary events within dreams within another complex web of dreams. The film received an Academy Award nomination for Best Foreign Language Film, winning the award. It was nominated for Best Writing, Story and Screenplay Based on Factual Material or Material Not Previously Produced or Published, unfairly losing it against The Candidate (1972).

    In Le Charme Discret de la Bourgeoisie, we are offered an extraordinary cast with wonderful performances that play the roles of extremely retarded, snobbish, socially eccentric, morally racist and unbelievably stupid and perfectionist characters. However, it is impossible to hate them. The abundant defects of their respective personalities form a huge monster that could symbolize the totalitarianism of the Catholic Church and the structure of a governmental dictatorship when put together. They are part of a societal monster that slowly eats the guts of the remains of the positive moral conducts. Even so, the delusional events they are found in, the absence of total credibility one as a cinematic viewer may have towards the spectacular events they go through, and the bizarreness of their dreams explode in a cataclysmic outcome of hard guffaws. These sequences are not meant to be taken seriously, nor analyzed in their most literal form. In the same way, the characters are not meant to be important. Nothing around their environment, an environment that consists in tiny little worlds of mansions, snobbishness and ego, is taken seriously by them; nor should we. The complexity of the mind and the subjectivity of the dream realm are the motor that deliciously emphasize the idiocy of their attitudes and the sphere that encapsulates them from living in an honest and respectful manner. In El Ángel Exterminador (1962), their physical antagonist was a room inside the mansion. In this case, the antagonist does not possess a physical form. It has a deeper meaning that explains their utter incapability of bringing down those mental barriers that cause them to be so narrow-minded.

    Of course, one element is missing in this delicious satire. They need a motive, an objective that must be constantly interrupted in the most ludicrous way possible. That is the purpose of the dinner. Murder, sex, the lack of coffee and tea, a randomly traumatized soldier who tells his story, a schedule misunderstanding, arrests, the death of a restaurant's manager and other ridicule factors are the ones that end up affecting either the small delicacy of a female protagonist or the food ambition of another male protagonist. Fernando Rey plays the role of the ambassador of Miranda whose name is Don Rafael Acosta, a delusional and self-centered man whose main priorities are the defense of his country despite his dependence on lies and socialism, and to always eat expensive meals. When either his persona or his country is attacked, he immediately arrives to the conclusion that he does not particularly fit in the group of people he is currently having a reunion with. Another comical aspect is the idolization of religious images and how the Catholic Church constantly assumes the role of God performing their own justice, a justice that may not concord with God's will, forgetting they are also humans and sons of God. This is especially highlighted in a scene where a bishop, under the excuse that the church is under constant modifications, asks for the position of a gardener. When he sneaks into the garage and wears the clothing of the gardener job he wants, he is kicked out of the house. However, when he changes to his bishop clothes, he is offered respect and welcome. Once again, the bourgeois class is disguising their horrendous beings with false signs of education towards wealthy social classes and a polite vocabulary, all of this handled with a brilliant sense of humor by Buñuel.

    This wonderful auteur is back in his second last surrealist and mindless journey. One cannot deny the brilliance of relativity that Buñuel, after understanding such concept, applied to Le Charme Discret de la Bourgeoisie. Comedy is based on an exaggerated depiction of the defects of man. Comedy appeals to audiences. That is why Viridiana (1961) was banned by authorities. That is why El Ángel Exterminador (1962) was wrongfully criticized. That is why L'Âge d'Or (1930) was forgotten for several decades. It lacked more childish humor so that wealthy social divisions could vociferate "OK, it is a spoof. We may laugh with the film." Moreover, censorship has been under constant modifications, although it still is a problematic factor in the process of filmmaking with evident financial reasons behind. Luis Buñuel is an expressionist. The screenplay he made in collaboration with Jean-Claude Carrière allowed him to exploit the universally accepted moral standards through fully-developed and painfully realistic characters, combining the twisted humor hidden behind a torture scene with a rare mixture of urban, ghostly myths and an orgy of falseness, while the characters blindly think they are walking in a straight line and will get to the end of a path full of flowers and a nice weather. The truth is that they will never arrive to a certain place. The path, full of little obstacles that attract their attention and keep delaying them, will keep going on and on and on... They will never be capable of taking a smarter detour, not to mention a more convenient transportation vehicle.

    100/100
  • jsbond008
    October 16, 2009
    jsbond008
    Strange. A series of dreams. No emotion. Too much emotion. Thing happens. Everything happens. Real life. not real life. what is life. never happy. Love is fleeting. That damn unconscious.

    I tried to convince my girlfriend a proper lay-in goes until 2PM. She wouldn?t go past 11A...( read more)M. She claimed she had too much to sleep last night. Said she had been laying in bed for so long her back was hurting. I told her she is missing out on one of life?s greatest luxuries. She ran off home, to a small farm town in the middle of the country where I laid all weekend in the city of deceit. The last few lines would be as it would sound if I was in ?The Discreet Charm? if, after all, I was a bourgeois individual, interested in nothing but my hedonistic pleasures and strange dreams.

    One is always smiling. One is always inebriated. One is constantly mature, horny for her husband, and polite to others. The others are all masters at the façade.
  • mrfacebook
    July 31, 2009
    mrfacebook
    Classic satire. Love this.
  • TonyTheBull
    June 13, 2009
    TonyTheBull
    This is basically a movie about how a group of people try to sit down to have dinner but that never happens. Pretty much every thing imagineable besides that happens. This is Luis Bunuel's masterpiece and remember he mad Belle De Jour. I just love movies like this where anything ...( read more)could happen at any time. There are many dream like scenes and most scenes you won't even know whether they are real or not until the next scene. This is not a complete comedy though. The story that the soldier tells is haunting in its own way. I really don't want to give anything away here but please put on this movie with an open mind and with no expectations whatsoever. Your mind will certainly be put to the test. The thing about this movie is that there really is no beginning or end but just a series of bizar and extremely well written, highly quotable scenes with vibrant dialogue and crazy characters. That's really the best I can explain this film.
  • jschartrand
    May 18, 2009
    jschartrand
    Parfaitement discret, parfaitement bourgeois. Où tout cela s'en va? Et c'est justement sur cette question que Bunuel nous laisse. Qu'ya-t-il à comprendre de ces êtres tantôt immonde, tantôt égoïstes, tantôt déplacés, centrés sur eux-mêmes, manipulé à leur guise contre la réalité....( read more) Mêlant réalité, rêve et fiction, Bunuel brouille lespistes pour insuffler ses réflexions avec habileté à travers un chassé-croisé d'événements qui sommes toutes sont toujours interrompu. Brillant à bien des moments.

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Critic Reviews

January 1, 2000
A.O. Scott, The New York Times

It combines a masterful command of the medium with a mischievous, anarchic sense of imaginative freedom. full review

January 1, 2000
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

Most of the films of Luis Bunuel are comedies in one way or another, but he doesn't go for gags and punch lines; his comedy is more like a dig in the ribs, sly and painful. full review

View more Le Charme Discret de la Bourgeoisie (The Discreet Charm Of The Bourgeoisie) reviews at RottenTomatoes.com

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