Running Time: 105 minutesDirected By: Luis Bunuel
Written By: Luis Bunuel, Jean-Claude Carriere
Main Cast: Fernando Rey, Jean-Pierre Cassel, Delphine Seyrig, Paul Frankeur, Stephane Audran
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AN UNPLANNED DOUBLE SHOT OF BUNUEL
Well, I sincerely didn't intend on watching another Luis Bunuel film, making it two, back-to-back for the director. However, I was so intrigued by "Belle de Jour", that I just couldn't help but to check out "The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie", as I knew it was streaming on Netflix.
The plot of the film isn't your run of the mill storyline, so bear with me as I try to put it all down in a paragraph long synopsis. The film opens with a P.O.V. shot, through the windshield of a car and looking out upon a dark road, illuminated by headlights. When the car arrives at it's destination, we find that it carries Raphael Acosta (Rey), Simone Thevenot (Seyrig), her husband (Frankeur) and her sister (Bulle Ogier). The quartet are about to meet their friends, Henri (Cassel) and Alice Senechal (Audran) for a dinner party. When the door is opened, Alice is quite surprised by their appearance, as she expected them the following night and informs them that Henri isn't even present. The couples, instead, decide to go to a restaurant and when they arrive they notice that the place is empty. They are told that the restaurant is, despite this fact, open and they they can be served. Once inside, the couples hear crying coming from another room and draw back a curtain to reveal a corpse. They're told that they corpse is that of the restaurant manager, who suddenly died earlier that day. This motif continues throughout the film, as the couples try, over and over again to have a meal with each other, but each and every time something happens that prevents this from occurring. It's more like an episodic movie, rather than a linear plot. The same characters continue to show up, but the events that occur are entirely different and loosely connected.
It's funny because I actually had to stop the film at one point and look up Delphine Seyrig to see if she was the same actress from "Jeanne Dielman...". It's kind of a testament to THAT film, because when I think of "Jeanne Dielman...", I think of it as a more voyeuristic, reality based affair and words like "actress" don't enter into my head. Oh well, on to the movie at hand...
I actually had a hard time grasping this one, much like I did with "Belle de Jour", but this one was even harder to get a handle on. I actually don't think I'll have a whole lot to say, but I'll say what's on my mind and we'll leave it at that. I can say, definitively, that the film IS NOT boring, in the least. At no time during the picture was I watching the clock or did I want the film to just end. It does have a drawing power that kind of sucks you into this very foreign ("foreign" in terms of different and not in terms of country) environment. Despite all the nonsense that continues to unfold throughout the picture, I kept with it and it's a really easy film to follow, if you pay attention. In the two films of his I've watched in the past two days, I've learned that Bunuel does have the ability to intrigue his viewers, a sometimes rare quality in a director. However, when it comes to the intrigue that Bunuel evokes in me, it's the kind of intrigue that makes me not know whether I like the picture or not. He simply gets my wheels to turning, but when it comes to forming an opinion, I find it sort of difficult.As to what Bunuel was exactly trying to say with "The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie", I really don't know. Maybe it reverberates back to what I was saying last night, where he really wasn't trying to SAY anything, but simply making a different brand of picture and giving the viewer the opportunity to dissect it how he or she sees fit. I do know that he's definitely making fun of the bourgeoisie lifestyle. These characters are made absolute fools of and can't even seem to accomplish the simple task of dining together. Maybe, he's saying that often times the charm of the bourgeoisie gets in the way of otherwise menial tasks. When characters say, "Oh we simply can't dine now, I'm not dressed for the occasion" or "I have an important function to get to, we'll have to postpone our luncheon", that theory kind of holds water. Whereas "everyday Joe's" will simply eat when they're hungry, whether all of the members of their party are present or not. I don't know, maybe I'm just grasping at straws and maybe there's no need to do that. Like I said, the film is intriguing and interesting enough now, when I have no clue what exactly was trying to be said or even what was going on and maybe I should just leave it at that. Ultimately, this is going to be one that I'll more than likely feel the need to revisit sometime in the future, but for now, we'll call that a review.
RATING: 7/10 Not sure why it's a '7', but it was certainly better than a '6.5' and a '7.5' seemed too high, so there's your reasoning. Whether or not this film will make the TOP 20 is beyond me at this point. We'll see how time treats it.
MOVIES WATCHED: 373
MOVIES LEFT TO WATCH: 628
December 20, 2011 6:14pm
I am guessing that you have't seen The Exterminating Angel. This film is a higher budget remake of it by the same director. In Exterminating Angel, a bourgeois group is stuck in a room that they can't leave. Slowly they revert to acting like animals. I think Discreet Charm used a different method to accomplish the same kind of torture.
ReplyDeleteA short comment as I don't know waht to say.
ReplyDeleteAlso i have to confess I didn't know what it was trying to say,.(other than being a swipe at the attitudes, conventions of the upper orders) and yet still- somehow- remained interested.
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