The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (2012 remastered)

One of his late works, The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (1972) is now brought back to cinemas, promising a totally new experience especially to new audience of Buñuel’s works due to the gap in years and culture. Depicting a group of six astocrats’ attempt to dine together no matter the obstruction or interruption from trivial (two of them abandon the rest to have some romantic moments together) to utmostly bizarre (they find themselves on a theatre stage instead), Buñuel established his sarcastic ideas of the ‘bourgeosie’ by showing their rather less glamourous side. On the other hand, his surrealist style is kept alive with some stories that have seemingly no contribution to the whole plot. Using no soundtrack, the film has a realistic feel but also it helps Buñuel to give out his original images in a shattering effect. Even the most scary scene (suddenly) happen with no background sound leading towards it. It is as if Buñuel is asking the audience to compare whether the life of the ‘bourgeoisie’ is more an ugly one to accept or the surreal images. The humour is one essential element and the film keeps this not only through the characters and their events but the light-hearted treatment of ‘everything is a dream’. Nevertheless, as the unexpected turns keep the audience in their seats, it does make them wonder towards the end the truthfulness of the whole story. An interesting work of Luis Buñuel with constant weirdness while at the same time proves to be certainly entertaining.