The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (1972)

A group of six sophisticates try desperately to have a meal together over the course of weeks, but for reasons real and imagined, all attempts are thwarted. This classic piece of French surrealism does not offer much more plot than that, and simply leads its viewers through one strange set of events to another.

Whether it be lunch, dinner, drinks, or tea, this sextet have the gods set against them enjoying each others company around a table. Everything ranging from a funeral ruining their appetites, to terrorists destroying their dinner table, to simply miscommunicating the day to meet, everything is thrown in to create a cerebral and at times even disturbing look at the upper crust.

Of  course what fun would that be if one didn't take a jab at the well-to-do as well? Sure these people know the "proper" way to drink a martini and carve a roast, but they know nothing of tact, and it is oh so gratifying  to watch them fail. Example: during Dinner #1 all of the guests leave the house because their hosts are twenty minutes late without a message. The two were having sex--literally in the bushes--like 16 year olds, and were confused when they discovered that nobody waited for them to finish. How classy is that? People are people and it is always fun to watch your betters behave like asses.

After that I really am not sure how much I understand about this film, or how much I am supposed to. It is as confusing, pointless, decadent, and backwards as its subjects, making it at once puzzling and mesmerizing. Many of the meals are fantasized, remembered, or dreamed, giving the movie a air of mystery. Was the entire thing dreamed? or fantasized? I couldn't rightly say. I will say, though, that many of these scenes were spectacularly realized, particularly the fantastical sequences. Director Luis Bunuel is an incredibly gifted director with a sharp ear for dialogue and an imagination to boot (something strangely lacking in American cinema). His pointed ideas of death scream loudly in his work, and this is no exception. His views on the afterlife are much uglier than his upbringing might suggest.

I must say that I am surprised at the actors' abilities to cope with material like this. Their is a scene where three women are trying to get a cup of tea in a noisy cafe. Sitting opposite them is a young lieutenant who asserts himself to their table. Without exchanging pleasantries he offers a weird and frightful tale from his childhood, in which the ghost of his dead mother convinced the boy to poison his father. The actresses managed to find a way to make that scene make sense to them and they handled it well. Many scenes were much the same, and required some skilled actors to keep it from becoming annoyingly pretentious.

This is a good movie to watch if you are tired of the monotonous Hollywood scene. You will find yourself watching something entirely different, for better or for worse. Don't be discouraged if you don't understand it all, I think taking pleasure in the absurdity is the point. Bon appetit!

3/4