Classic Films: "Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie"
January 23, 2003
The fun of Luis Bunuel's The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie is that it
pokes and prods and tears apart the manners of the rich social class. Much like
his The Exterminating Angel, where a group of friends gather for a
dinner party and find themselves unable to leave the host's house, Bunuel
shakes things up by making
it so the bourgeois can't even get to the food at the table. Every time they
arrive at a restaurant or gather at a friend's lovely home, they're interrupted by
sex, death, a possible raid, or a marijuana-smoking cavalry who perform their
maneuvers outside.
The upper middle class depicted in Discreet Charm showcase all of the
stiff upper lip that comes with the atmosphere. Bunuel's joke is that these
characters are constantly interrupted before dinner by the underlying ugliness
of the bourgeoisie, mainly drugs, adultery, and boredom. Dinner is said to be
one of the most important aspects of the rich, a time when they can
do something constructive (eat) and talk about it.
Within Bunuel's satiric tour de force are a cocaine-supplying ambassador (Fernando
Rey) who's paranoid that a terrorist group
from Miranda is after him; his friend (Paul Frankeur) and the wife (Delphine Seyrig)
the ambassador is having an affair with; a couple (Stephane Audran and
Jean-Pierre Cassel) who frequently arrange for dinner plans at their lovely home
but run off into the woods instead to have noisy sex. There's also the local
priest (Julien Bertheau) whose fetish is gardening even though his parents were
poisoned by a gardener.
Bunuel was 72 when he made Discreet Charm, in 1972. The film, which won
the Best Foreign Language prize at the Oscars and was awarded Best Film with
the National Society of Film Critics, followed and proceeded two other Bunuel
masterworks, Belle de Jour and That Obscure Object of Desire.
Belle de Jour followed Catherine Deneuve as a Parisian housewife-turned-
prostitute and Obscure Object is famous for having two separate actress
play the same role. With Discreet Charm, Bunuel delivered three stirring
films of originality and declaration, though Discreet Charm is my
favorite out of the bunch.
Bunuel, who died in 1983, is also famous for Un Chien Andalou, the 1929
film he collaborated on with Salvador Dali that is considered to be the best short
film of all time. As with that groundbreaking movie, Discreet Charm stands
above as a form of comedic self-expression, a film that knows what it's about and
doesn't apologize, as with most comedies. The joke is that the whole film admits
to being one.
Matthew Dalton
January 26, 2003
This is part of a weekly series of reviews of classic films.