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The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie
(1972, Fr.) (aka Le Charme Discret de la Bourgeoisie)
In surrealist director Luis Bunuel's satirical, dramatic
comedy masterpiece about entitled dinner-goers, presented episodically,
there were real-world events, inserted narratives, and dream sequences
(one was a dream-within-a-dream) - it was the winner of the Best
Foreign Film Oscar:
- the attempts of six middle-class (affluent bourgeoisie)
Parisians to have a meal together, including the host and hostess,
Alice (Stephane Audran) and Henri Senechal (Jean-Pierre Cassel),
Rafael Acosta (Fernando Rey) - the South American Ambassador of
a fictional Latin American country called the Republic of Miranda,
Francois (Paul Frankeur) and Simone Thévenot (Delphine Seyrig),
and Simone's spaced-out alcoholic sister Florence (Bulle Ogier)
- the constant interruptions of the lunch or dinner
meal occurred amidst various encapsulating themes of the decaying
European aristocracy, including murder, sex, infidelity, political
corruption and drug-dealing, military maneuvers, terrorism, and religion,
for example:
- a misunderstanding about the date of the meal
- the unexpected death in a nearby inn of a restaurant manager/owner
in a curtained-room adjacent to the dining room, where he was mourned
over during a vigil
- the host and hostess, the Senechals, having sex in the upstairs
bedroom and then in the adjacent garden
- the arrival of a large crowd of French army officers on maneuvers
who joined them for drinks and dinner
- the transformation of a dining room into a theatrical stage behind
a curtain, where the diners became actors in a play in front of
a live audience, with a prompter whispering lines of dialogue to
Henri who complained:
"I don't know my lines" as the crowd whistled and booed
them
- the arrival of French gangsters, who mowed down the dining group
with machine guns; Rafael woke up from this bad dream, and raided
food from the refrigerator
- the scene in a fancy teahouse cafe (with an orchestra,
including a cellist) where the trio of women (Simone, Florence, and
Alice) were dining, and listening to a cavalry lieutenant's macabre
confessional story (with flashback) about murdering his stepfather
with poisoned milk - and then, the waiter announced that they
were out of beverages: tea and coffee with milk
- the recurring, intermittent enigmatic image of the
group of the six individuals, all dressed for dinner, walking down
a long, unending empty country road - most prominently at the film's
end before the scrolling credits
Recurring Theme: Dinner Group Walking Down Country
Road
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Bourgeoisie Guests Attempting to
Dine Together
Death of Nearby Inn's Restaurant Manager/Owner
Sex in Garden Between the Hosts: The Senechals
Dining Table Setting on a Stage Set
Teahouse Tea - With No Beverages
French Gangsters With Machine Guns - A Bad Dream
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