The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (1972)

The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (Le charm discret de la bourgeoisie)
Directed by Luis Buñuel
Written by Luis Buñuel and Jean-Claude Carriere
1972/France/Italy/Spain
IMDb page
Repeat viewing/Amazon Prime free to members
One of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

Rafael Acosta: We are not against the students, but what can you do with a room full of flies? You take a fly-swatter and Bang! Bang!

This farce is certainly Buñuel’s funniest film and possibly his best.

The story is told as vignettes, including several  interlocking dreams so it’s hard to say where “fact” ends and fiction begins.  Ambassador Rafael Acosta (Fernando Rey) of the Republic of Miranda, a fictitious dictatorship in Latin America, smuggles cocaine using the diplomatic pouch in a scheme with his associates Francois Thevenot and Henri Senechal.  He is playing a cat and mouse game with a pretty young terrorist who is trying to kill him.  He is also having an affair with Thevenot’s wife Simone (Delphine Seyrig).  The Thevenot’s always have Mr. Thevenot’s tipsy sister Florence in tow.  Mr. Senechal is hot and heavy with his wife Alice (Stephane Audran).  The group is eventually completed with the addition of a bishop who becomes the Senechal’s gardener.

These people. who are victim of various degrees of food snobbery and entitlement, are constantly hosting dinners for each other.

Their meals are always disrupted by something absurd.  We get soldiers on army maneuvers, a hit squad, the diners discovering the food is fake and they are actually in a play they don’t know the lines for, etc.  There are also several sequences where random strangers suddenly ask to tell their own dreams.

Biuñuel had a real twinkle in his eye and director and company look to have had a good time making this.  He uses his anti-plot to skewer the Church, middle-class morality, international diplomacy, banana republics, politics, the military and on and on.  The film really is great fun and is highly recommended.

The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie won the Oscar for Best Foreign-Language film. Buñuel and Carriere were nominated for Best Writing, Story and Screenplay Based on Factual Material or Material Not Previously Published or Produced.

40th Anniversary Re-issue Trailer