The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (1972)
★★½ — The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (1972)
Luis Buñuel made The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie relatively late in a career that had already spanned four decades and two continents, having spent much of the 1950s and 1960s working in Mexico before finding a comfortable creative home in France. By 1972 he was in his early seventies and working in loose collaboration with screenwriter Jean-Claude Carrière, with whom he had partnered on several films including Belle de Jour (1967) and The Milky Way (1969). Produced by the small Paris-based outfit Greenwich Film Production, the film sits squarely within French art cinema of the early 1970s, a period still shaped by the restless experimentation that followed May 1968. It won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, something of a surprise given Buñuel's long history of provocateur cinema and his famously indifferent attitude toward institutional recognition.
The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (1972), by Luis Buñuel, is a surreal, dreamlike dismantling of middle-class pretensions, political hypocrisy, and the fragile façade of social order. Having seen Buñuel’s earlier work with Salvador Dalí (Un Chien Andalou) I should’ve known to expect something deeply strange, but this film still manages to unsettle and provoke in its own quiet, relentless way. It follows a group of affluent French diplomats and their friends as they attempt, again and again, to sit down for dinner, only to be interrupted by assassinations, unexpected dead bodies, police raids, and increasingly bizarre dream sequences that bleed into reality. On one level, it’s a razor-sharp satire: a commentary on the emptiness of bourgeois rituals, the incompetence of leadership, and the absurdity of aristocratic detachment. These people talk politics while ignoring real suffering, cling to etiquette amid chaos, and remain utterly blind to their own moral vacuume. The film peels back layer after layer of social performance, exposing the rot beneath the fine suits and polite conversation. The cinematography is pristine, elegant framing, smooth tracking shots, and a calm visual rhythm that makes the surreal eruptions feel even more jarring. Ive read multiple reviews thar call it “extraordinarily funny,” but honestly, I didn’t find it funny at all. The humor is so dry, so detached, and so rooted in existential absurdity that it lands more like discomfort than laughter. The lack of logic (characters dying, reappearing, dreaming within dreams) kept me at arm’s length. It’s intellectually fascinating, yes, and clearly a cult classic for good reason, but the very surrealism that defines it is what kept me from fully connecting. Brilliantly crafted, thematically rich, and visually masterful. A damning critique of class and power wrapped in dream logic. Just don’t expect laughs. Expect unease. And maybe a new perspective on your next dinner party.
Rating: ★★½ | Year: 1972 | Watched: 2025-11-04
Where to watch (UK)
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Related on Movies With Macca
More from Luis Buñuel: Land Without Bread (1933) · Simon of the Desert (1965) · L'Âge d'or (1930) · Un Chien Andalou (1929)
More with Fernando Rey: The French Connection (1971)
More from France: Fantastic Planet (1973) · Letter from Siberia (1957) · Lessons of Darkness (1992) · Here and Elsewhere (1976)
More from the 1970s: Fantastic Planet (1973) · Here and Elsewhere (1976) · Italianamerican (1974) · Punishment Park (1971)
More comedy: The Eagle (1925) · The General (1926) · Americana (2023) · The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! (1988)
