The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (2022)

Sadly Over-hyped

Powerful

hyped garbage

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

Bunuel, an almost mythic filmmaking figure; the man that crafted masterpiece upon masterpiece in a career spanning decades. Among his most famous films are "Un chien andalou", "The Exterminating Angel", "Belle de Jour", and "The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie", his only Oscar winning effort. The film is made up of a multitude of comical scenes and sketches that follows almost no story arc whatsoever. Whatever plot can be pieced together through hilarious scene after scene is very slim and minor. The film focuses on a group of upper class bourgeois friends whose lives seem to be falling apart in a rather surrealist fashion, particularly whenever they attempt to eat dinner together. This premise works as the set up for various gags and satirical jabs that are bizarre but smart. Bunuel was a genius in terms of both humor and the cinematic art form, and this film was perhaps created at the height of his powers when any possible limits were automatically eliminated within the first few minutes of a Bunuel film. His gift for sharp social satire never ceased to be no matter what age he became, and this film may be the most notable example of such a statement. It is a praised and downright beloved film despite its lack of plot and heavy doses of often experimental surrealism. This is a film that has been wildly acclaimed for one ruling reason; yes, it may be a sharp social critique and a brilliant art-house classic and an essential surrealist work, but it is most importantly genuinely hilarious. This is a COMEDY of the highest (and flat out funniest) degree, despite there being a few tragic and legitimately emotional sequences. Once you have witnessed this comic gem of a film, you may very well have reached the peak of world cinema. This work sits atop the mountain of great films, joining the ranks of masterpieces that range from "Citizen Kane" to "Back to the Future" to "Nashville" to "Satantango", and I'm sure it enjoys their company!

This came in the outstanding 10-DVD boxed set 'Rialto Pictures: 10 Years', one of the finest things I've bought from The Criterion Collection (and a great deal too, one I'd heartily endorse).I had to wait an entire day, after watching the dreadful 'Disaster Movie', to get the acrid taste out of my mouth to watch this one, by my fourth favourite director ever ('Viridiana' is still probably my favourite of his, though). Luckily it had three of my favourite French actors from the period, in Bulle Ogier (just check out 'Maitresse' if you don't understand why), Delphine Seyrig and Fernando Rey (for the two 'French Connection' films alone)--even though for a director of Bunuel's strength, any actors could have sufficed. It's the ideas that stand out most triumphantly.It's most known for being Bunuel's Oscar-winner for Best Foreign Language Film, but its OTHER nomination is what's almost neglected when people talk about him. Yes, they talk about Bunuel the director, or (from David Thomson) Bunuel the photographer, but people never realize his two nominations for the Calanda, Spain-native were never for director, but for writing (with another nod for his swan song, 'The Obscure Object of Desire').

This French film from BAFTA nominated director Luis Buñuel (Un Chien Andalou, Land Without Bread, Belle De Jour) has a very iconic poster, the big pair of lips with legs wearing stockings and a bowler hat, and being in the book 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die I was hoping the film itself would be as good as the poster. Basically the film consists of guests gathering for a dinner together, and this is intertwined with the individual characters having dreams about weird things happening at the dinner, making the latter of the film complex and virtual. The guests attending the dinner are Ambassador Don Rafael Acosta (Fernando Rey), Madame Simone Thévenot (Delphine Seyrig), M. Thevenot (Paul Frankeur) and Florence (Bulle Ogier), with the evening hosted by Alice Sénéchal (BAFTA nominated Stéphane Audran) and her husband Henri (Jean-Pierre Cassel). You are not sure of all the scenes, apart from the obvious things, whether they are part of a dream or reality, as every time the upper-middle class people try to have their dinner something interrupts them. Events in the dinner attempts include dropped turkeys/chickens, the table appearing on a theatre stage in front of a live audience, dead characters walking around as blood-covered zombies, and heavily armed men storming in and killing everyone with machine guns. Also starring Julien Bertheau as Bishop Dufour, Claude Piéplu as Colonel and Michel Piccoli as Home Secretary. Despite not knowing where to go and what was real in this film, I did find it an interesting watch, especially with the interruptions and bizarre scenarios, like the theatre and gun scenes, and the editing is certainly inventive, so I would say it is a worthwhile surreal comedy drama. It won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film, and it was nominated for Best Writing, Story and Screenplay Based on Factual Material or Material Not Previously Published or Produced, and it won the BAFTA for Best Screenplay, and it was nominated for Best Film and Best Sound Track, and it was nominated the Golden Globe for Best Foreign-Language Foreign Film. Very good!

At this point, Luis Bunuel has become so masterful he'll lead you to believe in it through everything, even when it's a dream.Six bourgeois friends. Many attempts at meals. Very few successes. Well, in fact, let's be honest: NO successes. Social commentary and iconoclasm throughout. Think YOU can turn that into a movie? This movie is a little bit more dated-feeling in its references than The Phantom of Liberty, but the two really do share a close structural connection. Discreet Charm is slightly more "narrative" in the fact that the same characters keep returning, but otherwise the two movies might as well be edited together and flow into one. Apparently--and I haven't gotten around to watching it yet--Milky Way is the same. If that's the case, I'm on board.Seriously, Bunuel stands out in the world of cinema as a remarkable auteur, a serious artist with huge social engagement, and is quite admired, but there is nothing but good that can be learned from paying attention to how he uses his camera to direct your eye and how he blocks scenes. The guy has consummate control of space that usually only Hitchcock gets praise for. Few filmmakers really achieve this level of direct eye--Antonioni and Tarkovsky could be included in this list. Kim Ki Duk is aiming to get there. But in his 70s French cinema, Bunuel is the bullseye.--PolarisDiB