Buñuel's original creative arts begins, perhaps, with Belle de jour which impressed me greatly. And since then he created a series of strange and bizzare films that became the most intresting epoch in his creative life till his last film Cet obscure objet du désir. All these films are made in the dame style. He repeats many motifs, fragments and other elements not to mention his preferable actors such as Fernando Rey, Silvia Pinal and many others.
The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie portraits a group of people, typical French (another interesting moment to observe: his characters and events can take place only in France, at least it's difficult to imagine the same evens happen somewhere else). Indeed French were the cradle of so-called liberty and democracy (these ideas crashed after all but it's not the point now). French do not believe in supernatural but can lead things and can be masters of absurd. In this film reality and dreams are mixed: you see what seems to be a normal episode unless it is gradually or abrupt comes to absurd. But all these episodes are not so absurd after all like the famous scene where the bishop comes to be hired as a gardener. In this film there are many funny and witty moments that make you laugh, actually this is one of the few films that seemed to me too short, I'd like to watch it more and more.
It is difficult to retell the plot of this film since it has a fragmental structure: the same characters gather for a party several times and different events take place there. It is a bizarre world that looks quite normal — the same paradox that is so typical for Buñuel. His characters are seldom surprised at the strange events that happen to them, no, they continue to behave as though nothing happen and gradually the edge between bizarre and “normal” become vague, we are not sure what's wrong with that bizarre world. Perhaps it is a way to escape the ordinary reality that they are grateful to.
The action of the movie is set in France but one of the main characters is an ambassador of the fictional republic Miranda that nobody in France ever heard about but pretends to know well. These fellows never express any surprise with anything and the ambassador has hard time to persuade them of the false of all the rumours that are spread about his country.
What excites me is the exactness of the title. Charm is in the atmosphere of this film, in every episode. In all his films Buñuel makes sutle mocks on religion but they are never explicit. Like the bishop who comes to get hired as a gardener. (His religious concept he showed in more detail in The Milky Way).
From the actor's playing I'd like to pay attention to the acting of Fernando Rey, the ambassador. Buñuel's films are crowded with people, very often they stay anonymous to us.
This is a brilliant film, I believe you'll get a lot of pleasure from watching it if you haven't seen it yet. A real masterpiece, an arabesque in the movie.
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