You know, sometimes you just find the most unexpected movies lurking deep in some streaming service’s catalog. For example, the surrealistic Luis Bunuel movie The Discrete Charm of the Bourgeoisie was included for free with my Amazon Prime membership.
As with so many other movies I end up watching these days, I figured “Why not?”
It is and it isn’t hard to describe The Discrete Charms of the Bourgeoisie. Six upper class people–the ambassador from a fictional Latin American country, two wealthy Frenchmen, the Frenchmen’s wives, and the sister of one of the wives–keep attempting to meet in groups for a meal and something always comes up to prevent them from actually enjoying it. At first, it’s a simple mistaken date as four of the group arrive at one couple’s house for dinner only to find out they are expected the next night and the date was mixed up somehow. The longer the movie goes, the crazier the excuse for what goes wrong, and that’s before the more outlandish ones that come near the end that always end up as dreams.
And, every so often, we see the six walking down a country road going…somewhere.
Not knowing where these people are going is probably the point of this movie. It’s difficult to say if any of the six have a particularly distinct personality. The ambassador, Rafael, is carrying on with one of the wives for a scene, but his efforts to get laid seem to be as likely as his efforts to get a meal. The sister character is something of a sloppy drunk. The men may be involved in cocaine smuggling. There’s a lot to this movie that, thanks to the various scenes revealed to be dreams, make it questionable how much really happens.
But this isn’t the sort of movie you watch for the characters. This is the sort of movie where the attraction is the outlandish situations. A possible seventh member of the group is the local bishop who decides, for some reason, to take a job as a gardener for one of the couples. Why? He says he’s a working bishop and loves working in the garden. Is he hired help or a spiritual guide? Both actually, for what little spirituality the movie contains.
Mostly, this is a movie that throws a lot of weird obstacles in the path of both the characters and the audience. The audience never really knows which stories are true as ghosts and dreams keep coming along, and the characters just want to get something to eat and enjoy each other’s company, not get arrested or find themselves on a stage in front of an audience. It’s the sort of movie you should admire for the weird incidents, not one to get wrapped up in with something like good character development. Not for everyone, but if you don’t mind a weird movie in French, give it a look.
Grade: A-
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