Le charme discret de la bourgeoisie (1972)

User Rating:

8.0/10   

Director:

Luis Buñuel

Writers:

Luis Buñuel (written by)
Jean-Claude Carrière (written by)

Release Date:

22 October 1972 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama | Fantasy

Plot:

A surreal, virtually plotless series of dreams centered around six middle-class people and their consistently interrupted attempts to have a meal together.

Plot Keywords:

Middle Class | Date | Food | Heroin | Sex In Garden

Awards:

Won Oscar. Another 5 wins & 5 nominations

Cast

Fernando Rey	...	Don Rafael Acosta
Paul Frankeur	...	M. Thevenot
Delphine Seyrig	...	Simone Thévenot
Bulle Ogier	...	Florence
Stéphane Audran	...	Alice Sénéchal (as Stephane Audran)
Jean-Pierre Cassel	...	Henri Sénéchal
Julien Bertheau	...	Mgr Dufour
Milena Vukotic	...	Ines
Maria Gabriella Maione	...	Guerilla
Claude Piéplu	...	Colonel
Muni	...	Peasant
Pierre Maguelon	...	Sgt de police
François Maistre	...	Delecluze
Michel Piccoli	...	Ministre
Ellen Bahl
Christian Baltauss
Olivier Bauchet
Robert Benoît
Anne-Marie Deschott
Jean-Michel Dhermay		(as Michel Dhermay)
Georges Douking	...	Jardinier
Jean Degrave
Sébastien Floche
François Guilloteau
Claude Jaeger
Jean-Claude Jarry
Pierre Lary
Robert Le Béal	...	Couturier (as Robert Le Beal)
Alix Mahieux
Bernard Musson	...	Serveur
Maxence Mailfort	...	Sergent qui raconte ses rêves
Robert Party
Jean Revel
Jacques Rispal	...	Un gendarme
Amparo Soler Leal		(as Amparo Soler-Leal)
Diane Vernon

Directed by
Luis Buñuel		(as Luis Bunuel)

Writing credits
Luis Buñuel		(written by) (as Luis Bunuel) &
Jean-Claude Carrière		(written by)

Produced by
Serge Silberman	....	producer

Cinematography by
Edmond Richard

Film Editing by
Hélène Plemiannikov

Art Direction by
Pierre Guffroy

Costume Design by
Jacqueline Guyot

Makeup Department
Odette Berroyer	....	makeup artist
Fernande Hugi	....	makeup artist

Production Management
Ulrich Picard	....	production manager (as Ully Pickard)

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Arnie Gelbart	....	assistant director
Pierre Lary	....	assistant director

Art Department
Albert Rajau	....	assistant decorator
François Sune	....	property master
Ferracci	....	poster designer (uncredited)

Sound Department
Daniel Brisseau	....	sound assistant
Luis Buñuel	....	sound effects (as Luis Bunuel)
Jacques Carrère	....	sound mixer (as Jacques Carrere)
Jacqueline Porel	....	recording technician (as J. Porel)
Claude Villand	....	assistant sound mixer
Guy Villette	....	sound engineer

Camera and Electrical Department
André Clément	....	assistant camera
Alain Herpe	....	assistant camera
Yves Manciet	....	still photographer
Bernard Noisette	....	camera operator
Marcel Policard	....	chief electrician

Costume and Wardrobe Department
Jean Patou	....	gowns: Delphine Seyrig
Olympe Watelle	....	assistant costumer

Editorial Department
Gina Pignier	....	assistant editor

Other crew
Jacqueline Dudilleux	....	administrator
Suzanne Durrenberger	....	script girl
Jean Lara	....	general manager
Pierre Lefait	....	locations: exteriors
René Menuset	....	chief machinist
Jacqueline Oblin	....	accountant
Jean Revel	....	assistant locations: exterior
Marie-Jane Ruel	....	production secretary
Jean-Jacques Schpoliansky	....	assistant general manager
Henri Stern	....	furrier

Production Companies

• Dean Film
• Greenwich Film Productions
• Jet Films

Distributors

• Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation (1972) (USA) (theatrical) (subtitled)
• Xenon Entertainment Group (1992) (USA) (VHS)
• Cinematheque (1996) (USA) (VHS)
• Criterion Collection, The (2000) (USA) (DVD)
• Home Vision Entertainment (HVE) (2000) (USA) (VHS)
• Home Vision Entertainment (HVE) (2003) (USA) (DVD)
• Fox-MGM (1973) (West Germany) (theatrical)
• Rialto Pictures (????) (USA) (theatrical) (re-release)
• Applause Video (????) (USA) (VHS)
• Corinth Video (????) (USA) (VHS)
• Gativideo (2008) (Argentina) (DVD)
• Homescreen (19??) (Netherlands) (VHS)
• Kinowelt Home Entertainment (1995) (Germany) (VHS)
• Lume Filmes (2008) (Brazil) (DVD)
• Media Home Entertainment (????) (USA) (VHS)
• Sagres Filmes (????) (Brazil) (VHS)

Also Known As:

The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (Canada: English title) (USA)
El discreto encanto de la burguesía (Spain)
Il fascino discreto della borghesia (Italy)

Runtime:

102 min

Country:

France | Italy | Spain

Language:

French | Spanish

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Singapore:NC-16 (DVD rating) | Singapore:PG | West Germany:16 (f) | Australia:M (DVD rating) | Argentina:16 | Chile:18 | Finland:K-16 | Sweden:15 | UK:15 | USA:PG | Australia:PG | UK:AA (original rating)

Filming Locations:

Paris, France

Company:

Dean Film

Trivia:

The date Don Rafael tells Florence is his birthday, 22 February, is also director Luis Buñuel's birthday.

Quotes:

Colonel: Marijuana isn't a drug. Look at what goes on in Vietnam. From the general down to the private, they all smoke.
Mme. Thevenot: As a result, once a week they bomb their own troops.
Colonel: If they bomb their own troops, they must have their reasons.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Le cinéma passe à table (2005) (TV)

Bunuel's towering achievement.

Bunuel's career was one of the most sensational you could dream of.At least ten of his movies are among my favorites and ten others are not far behind.

Once he said :" when I was young and I was watching the sky and saying :"it's beautiful up there and there's nothing;now,I simply say :"it's beautiful"Atheism had turned into agnosticism.Perhaps so,but Bunuel's favorite targets are still here.The bishop and the army are here to stay;they already were in "l'âge d'or" (1930)

"DIscreet charm" is a comprehensive work :it includes almost everything that made Bunuel the genius every cine buff loves ;his permanent features are all included: these bourgeois walking on an endless road are the same who were locked up in the house in "el angel exterminador";Rabal trying to catch one more peace of meat is like the men who were fighting for water in "el angel" .THe selfishness of the bourgeoisie is given a stunning treatment:the impossibility to get a good meal .Bunuel explodes certitudes and he explodes different genres.One of them is the light comedy with its adulteries,its mistaken identities and its contretemps.and if the message is not clear enough,one of the scenes shows the characters on a stage!Another one is the horror and fantasy film : the young boy's mother asking him to kill his father (who is actually not his parent);and most of all the soldier's dream which could provide the substance for at least a whole movie.

Dreamlike sequences are Bunuel's forte .He has sometimes been equaled (André Delvaux:"un soir un train" ) but never surpassed: just think of Pablo's dream in "los olvidados" ;the Christ on the electric wires in "cela s'appelle l'aurore" ;Séverine's fantasies in "Belle de Jour" ;Rey's head as a bell clapper in "Tristana".But in "discreet charm" Bunuel seems to connect all the links of the chain and his film becomes a tapestry of Bayeux where dreams and reality follow naturally. "I dreamed ,Thevenot says,that Senechal dreamed that he was on a stage and ..." It' s "Jacob's ladder" twenty years before that later movie appears.

It's also a political movie,but not a work for highbrows .What he did not fully achieved with the spotty "la fièvre monte à El Pao" ,and the more interesting "death in the garden" ,Bunuel pulls it off with gusto here.The republic (sic) of Miranda whose ambassador is none other than Rey is ,even if we never see it , depicted in minute lavish detail .Unlike highbrows like Godard who deals out his lecture on Mao in "la chinoise" ,Luis Bunuel remains accessible to everybody:we laugh and we laugh a lot when we discover the harsh realities of Miranda Land which has no pyramids ,but has Nazis and poverty.Actually it's not that much funny.

A word about the cast;it's perfect:Rey is wonderful as a drug trafficker ambassador who is always afraid to be slain ;Stephane Audran and Jean-Pierre Cassel had teamed up two years before in another attack against bourgeoisie ,Chabrol's "la rupture" ;Bulle Ogier,for once,forgets her usual parts who give the non-intellectual terrible headaches and manages to stay very natural;Claude Piéplu and his inimitable voice (make sure you hear his voice:nobody can dub him successfully) portrays a colorful colonel who tells the ambassador home truth and literally invades Audran's house with his staff and has lunch with the guests (a meal where the bourgeois,the Church and the Army eat together is something to watch).But for me the stand-out is feminist Delphine Seyrig,with her beaming face,her preciosity and her sweet stupidity.

To say that "discreet charm" is a masterpiece is to state the obvious.Maybe Bunuel's tour de force lies in the fact that even in reality,strange things happen and the characters do not seem to be surprised and shocked.... as long as their privileges are not called into question.If you should only see one Bunuel film,you had to choose this one.But if you like it,treasures are waiting for you.